Chuck vs The Novelization
by El-Poofy
Summary: Chuck was a regular guy with regular dreams. Expelled from Stanford, Chuck had since lived a rather mundane life. This all changed when his old rival, Bryce Larkin sent him an e-mail on his birthday. Now, Chuck is protected 24/7 by CIA and NSA's finest while he struggles to balance family, the Buy More, Morgan and of course, his growing infatuation with his beautiful blond handler.


**Chuck vs. The Intersect**

_**5 years ago.**_

_**Stanford University.**_

He watched as his shaggy haired best friend reached for the golden trophy that lay atop the shelf and placed it gingerly in a cardboard box sitting on his bed.

Bryce didn't want to do it. He hated that it was because of him that Chuck had been expelled. He could feel the disappointment radiating from Bartowski's body. The way he refused to acknowledge that he was there at all. It hurt. Chuck was a special kid. And Bryce had always felt that he was made for better things. He had always been looking out for Chuck. And he still is.

When Bartowski had finally packed all the trinkets from his room, he stood up straight and sighed heavily. Larkin was standing right behind the frame, feeling as if he wasn't welcome into their room anymore.

"Why'd you do it, Bryce?" Chuck asked softly. He could hear the mix of accusation, disappointment and confusion in his voice. Before, Larkin would've felt the urge to simply tell Chuck everything. It was that quality about him that made Bryce want to unload all of his secrets unto Chuck. Of course, the CIA training has tore that weakness out of him and now Bryce simply felt empty.

"You did it to yourself." He said, albeit a little coldly.

Bartowski's only response was a drop of his shoulders, and with that, Bryce could feel his own heart drop to the bottom of his stomach. He felt sick, lying to Chuck like that. Bryce kept telling himself the same thing. That it was Chuck's own fault for being so smart. For having such a special brain. For being such a nice guy. For being... well... Chuck Bartowski.

Shutting his eyes in frustration, Chuck pulled up his sleeves and picked up his box. Bryce hadn't noticed the crowd that gathered around them, but the frat boys had dropped whatever they were doing and they watched. They watched silently as Chuck stalked out that door, turning back one last time, brown eyes taking the image in, and finally, he left without a word.

_It was... for his own good..._

* * *

**Present**

**Casa de Bartowski**

"Morgan, this is a bad idea."

"Well, we can't stay here, Chuck," the dark haired, unshaven man whispered harshly.

Chuck felt his heart beat faster and faster as the gravity of the situation weighed in on him, but he remained calm, unlike his bestfriend. He concentrated on his breathing to keep his brain functioning. It was his only redeeming quality after all, his slightly above average brain.

"I'm coming up with a plan," he growled lowly, trying his best to keep his voice down.

Morgan narrowed his eyes at Chuck, and even in the dark, the taller of the two men could see the slightly deranged look in Grimes' eyes, "Plan? What plan?" He drawled out dramatically, "This is _survival_."

At that last word, the men could hear the handles on the door rattle. Chuck turned frantically to Morgan. The colour from his bestfriend's face has completely drained out and Chuck knew that he was on his own now.

"_Shit_, that's her!" Morgan cried out in hushed tones and he quickly put his leg through the window, not caring if their little makeshift rope would hold at all, but it was, of course, no use. They were caught and there was nothing they could do.

_Time to face the music I guess._

* * *

Sometimes Ellie wondered if it was good idea to let Morgan hang around her younger brother all the time. It wasn't that she hated the little guy. No, the strongest feelings she had for Morgan was disgust, repulsion and sometimes disappointment. It was just that Morgan didn't seem to see the ugly things in life and he just assumed the easy way out. Pretending that nothing was wrong. That it wasn't his fault.

But of course, Morgan had become a permanent fixture in her, and Chuck's, life ever since Chuck was in middle school, so they had pretty much grown up together. So one could just imagine the thoughts that ran through her mind when Devon pulled her aside to tell her that he saw Morgan drag her brother away into the house.

Ellie sighed heavily and patted her boyfriend on his broad shoulders, a signal telling him that she was going to handle this. She put her red, plastic cup on the edge of the fountain and quickly made her way into the house, smiling and waving at friends and acquaintances who'd made time to come down to Chuck's party.

The crowd at the party really was quite a feat though. Being Doctors, it was hard enough to get some of these people to leave their houses after shift, especially when they probably had full shifts the next day. But of course, this fact was lost on Morgan.

When she opened the door to her brother's room, Ellie couldn't help the granny scowl that crawled up her face. The room was dark, but she could still make out the silhouette of Morgan hanging onto the window frame, as if he was falling out. For goodness sake, they lived on the first floor!

"Chuck, what are you doing?" she asked exasperatedly, one hand on the knob, and the other gripping her hip.

Her brother, who was crouched in the corner of his room, right next to the window, cast his eyes on the flashlight in his hands, trying to distract himself, "Uhh... Escaping?" He said, as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

"From your own birthday party?" Ellie felt a brow cock up at his curious response. Her bright brown eyes then darted towards Morgan, who was still pretending as if he was actually climbing out a window.

"Hey Ellie," he half-laughed, half-groaned, "Wow, you look-"he huffed as he gripped the makeshift rope tightly, "-fantastic."

Ellie narrowed her eyes at that. Chuck noticed his sister's thinning patience and quickly interjected, "A-Ah, y'know sis," he laughed nervously, "The thing is Morgan and I don't really feel like we're fitting in..." he drawled out slowly, "At my birthday party... Cuz' we don't know anybody... Cuz' they're all _your _friends... and they all happen to be doctors."

Before Ellie could say anything, Morgan chuckled, "The doctors, they don't really get our jokes."

"Well, _your _jokes," Chuck turned to his friend with a pull on his lips.

Morgan thought for a second and agreed, "Yeah, my jokes."

With that, the two shrugged nonchalantly as if their little comedy skit was the end of the discussion and they looked at Ellie as if it was about time she left. Oh, Dr. Bartowkski was having none of that.

"Chuck", she eye balled her brother seriously, "I have invited real, live women for you," she emphasized the 'real' and the 'live', then she sighed, "So please, let's go." Ellie said with finality and turned, pulling the door close behind her.

Although, just as she was about to leave, Ellie shot an exhausted look at the man 'hanging' out the window and frowned thinly, "Morgan, you stay here."

* * *

There were so many voices.

So many unfamiliar voices that spoke to him, asking him a myriad of questions. Chuck could feel like face heat up at the close proximity of the women that came up to him. Sure they were pretty women. Some of them were obviously so much older than him though, being Ellie's and Captain Awesome's friends. And they were all doctors, meaning that they earned so much more than him.

Frankly, Chuck felt inferior, standing in this crowd. Although it was his birthday party, he knew that these people were only here because of the free food. And of course, the Captain and Ellie were great people. Who wouldn't want to be friends with them?

He shook his head as his random thoughts overwhelmed him. Chuck just wanted this night to be over. He was too tired to even try to play along. Suddenly, he thought he heard one of the women say something about Stanford, and he vaguely remember telling her that he went to Stanford in his nervous daze.

"I went to Stanford too! Class of 02'!" the small brunette standing in from of him chirped excitedly, "What was your major?"

Chuck swallowed hard as he muttered the words, "Engineering."

"Oh my God, I knew this _great _guy!" she giggled and began to tap a finger on her gloss coated lips, "Um, he was an engineer, he ran track..."

Oh no.

"and I think he was a gymnast too-"

There was only one possibility.

"Bryce Larkin," Chuck managed to croak out the name, "he was my roommate."

The tiny brunette, and her other doctors friends crowding around Chuck, seemed to have drifted off into their own little Bryce fantasy. She asked curiously, with a lusty grin no less, "What's he doing now?"

Chuck pondered for a moment. The last he'd heard, Bryce had gone and become an accountant in some hot shot firm. Which was weird, since his major was in Mechanical Engineering. Not that Chuck cared, of course. When Bryce had let him down back in their Stanford days, Chuck had long discarded Larkin. The fact that Bryce then later went out with Jill was simply rubbing salt on his all too fresh wound. They used to be as close as brothers. Now Bryce was, as that Gotye song went, somebody that he used to know.

The brunette was still waiting for his answer though, and Chuck simply shrugged, "I think he became an accountant."

* * *

**Washington, D.C**

**Intersect Room**

There was so much blood.

He was losing so much blood. Granted that most were nonlethal, Bryce figured that he'd need at least a couple of dozens of stitches to get everything closed up when he finished his mission.

_If I finish this mission..._

Yes, it was highly unlikely he'd be able to outrun both CIA and NSA. He knew that John Casey was already on his tail and he knew that Sarah would be notified soon. It was just a matter of time. But time was not a luxury he had. Right now, time was everything. Bryce bit his lower lip as he braved through the pain that shot up his leg as he pushed himself off the blinding, white tiles.

_Gotta get it out before they can get their grubby hands on this..._

Larkin dropped to his knees as he slid over to the small machine that sat right in the middle of the large, ball room sized chamber. When the computer came alive, he punched in the codes that he'd retrieved from a previous run through the CIA database and he jabbed the cable in roughly.

He could feel the sweat roll down his face, mixing in with the blood that dribbled from an open wound near his hair line. That's gonna leave a mark, Bryce thought idly, fingers brushing across the keyboard expertly. When the computer beeped and warned that the transfer was ready, Bryce couldn't help the small smirk that played on his face.

"Time to say goodbye," he muttered to himself as he slipped on the tinted glasses.

When his bloodied finger tapped on the button, Bryce could almost feel the whiplash of all the NSA and CIA's secrets, shoving and stuffing themselves into bytes and binaries, and transferring themselves into the special phone that a certain agent 'Orion' had given him.

For a while, Larkin had some time to breathe. All this running, all this lying. It was exhausting. He reminisced about the simpler times. Before the CIA came knocking on his doors. Back when he, Chuck and Jill would sit in the empty lecture hall, laughing excitedly as they worked on their own version of Zork.

Of course Jill was only there for Chuck, and it was mainly him and Bartowski who did any of the computer stuff. She just liked to sit there, watching Chuck as he blabbered passionately about programming and computers.

Bryce couldn't help smiling at that memory. But of course, if not for joining the CIA, Larkin would never have met his partner.

_Sarah Walker..._

* * *

**Ritz Carlton Hotel, DC.**

"Sarah," the voice of her superior rang in her ears. "Have you heard what I said? Are you even there?"

"Yes, I understand the situation, sir," she spluttered out.

"Alright. Dismissed."

Her hands were trembling as she sat alone in her apartment. The skyline of Washington shone brightly from her windows. When Graham disconnected, Sarah exhaled the breath that she hadn't know she had held.

The dull throbbing in her chest simply reminded her of how stupid she was to have trusted Bryce. It was only now that Sarah finally knew why the CIA had the '_no fraternizing with fellow agents_' rule. Of course her relationship with Bryce had been more carnal than anything, she still cared for him. They had been partners for two years. Two years of mind games and sexual tension. Two years of wondering if what she felt, or what she thought she felt, was the same feeling that Bryce had. Or if it was just her.

They spent two years watching out for each other, going through the most dangerous missions together. She was thrust unto him almost immediately after coming back from her RED test. And after rejecting his advances for months, she finally gave in.

_And this is how it ends..._

Not even a proper goodbye. Sarah wiped at the lone tear that escaped her eye. It wasn't worth crying over than man. He betrayed his country, he betrayed the CIA, and most importantly, he betrayed _her_.

She should've seen it coming. His strange actions, his unusual phone calls. How he was becoming more and more paranoid with every mission. Even in bed, he insisted on having his phone and laptop nearby. At first Sarah had thought it was just one of those mobile obsessions, but after Bryce was exposed, she put the pieces together.

_It wasn't that hard... Just follow the lies..._

She sighed heavily. Graham had informed her that an NSA agent, John Casey, was assigned to _neutralize _the situation. Casey was a veteran, and he always got the job done. With that, Sarah knew that she would not be seeing Bryce again.

_Goodbye, Bryce._

* * *

**Casa de Bartowski**

"Chuck, a word of advice," Ellie sighed as she sat beside him by the edge of the fountain, "When a girl asks about an ex-girlfriend, it's more of a formality. We don't really wanna hear about it. It's depressing."

Chuck hated it when Ellie sighed. It usually came because of him, and he hated disappointing her. Hadn't he done enough of that already? He could still remember the disappointment on her face when she saw that he had lugging all his stuff from the dorm, back to their little cove here at Echo Park.

When she saw that her brother had nothing to say, Ellie continued, rubbing a hand on his back in small circles, "Stanford was 5 years ago, you need to move on."

"Do we really need to have this conversation again?" Chuck grumbled, fingering the label of the beer bottle he held in his hand.

He saw his sister's brows furrow curiously as she flashed him an amused smile, "We've rehearsed it enough."

The younger Bartowski eyed his sister frustratedly, and when he saw that she would never, _ever _back down from this, he sighed, defeated, "Fine." He then added, "I'll get over Jill tomorrow."

He got up and left towards the apartment before Ellie could say anything. He didn't want to hear it. No matter how hard he tried, it was just too much for him. He didn't _want _to get over Jill. She was supposed to be the one. She was so smart, so beautiful, and Chuck didn't want to say it, but he had a thing for brunettes. Not chatty ones like the doctor from before, but the ones who smiled with their eyes. The ones who crinkled their noses when they laughed...

He knew that this _obsession _was getting unhealthy, but he'd stopped trying a long time ago. Now he simply let himself go wherever the currents may take him. He knew that if he tried, he'd have to make decisions, and Chuck knew by now that he _sucked _ at making decisions.

_Because they always come around and bite you in the ass._

* * *

**Washington D.C**

**Intersect Room**

He checked the room once more and patted his pockets again to reassure himself. The phone was still in there. The C4 has been planted. He took a last breath for courage and Bryce pushed the button.

The explosion was loud. Much too loud. When he was finally out of the god forsaken room, Bryce could no longer hear in his left ear. It was simply not picking up any sound, although a loud siren was blaring and it irritated his bruised right ear, his left was annoyingly silent. He was pretty sure he bruised a couple of ribs as well, because every time he tried to breathe, his chest ached and it was causing him to slow down.

His parkouring through the tight corridor was what saved him from the onslaught of guards. When Bryce noticed the door coming up, he knew that instant, that it was locked. Not taking any chances, with the bumbling fools closing in on him, he jumped up the table by the side, grabbed the pipe overhead and leapt through the glass hinge.

Broken glass, of course, cut his cheek and fresh blood was running down his face, but it didn't slow him down. Bryce bit the inside of his cheek to cope with the pain and he continued running. It was only when he closed in on the stair well that he remembered the phone in his pocket.

Leaning against the corner, Bryce grabbed the guard who had foolishly closed in too quickly on him, and slamming his face unto the brick wall. He took his small window of time to quickly look for the particular name from his list of contacts.

Shouts were closing in and Bryce knew that he had wasted too much time resting. He leaped over the unconscious body and began to put more distance between him and the guards again. He could hear their chatters and he knew that they were on to him, that he was headed for the roof. Too late now though. There was no way out _except _through the roof.

Cursing softly under his breath, Bryce continued to run. By the time he'd reached the roof, two men were already right behind him. They weren't shooting at him, probably because they were told to shoot unless absolutely necessary. They wanted him alive. Using this to his advantage, Bryce continued on boldly.

He leaped from roof to roof, and he noticed that the footsteps running behind him were either getting slower, or they were not there at all. Refusing to give in to the temptation of looking behind, Bryce found a shorter roof coming up next to the building and quickly took the chance. He jumped down, straining his knees as he hissed in pain.

Larkin finally leaped off the roof and landed painfully on the ground. Sweet, sweet land. He knew that he did not have time and quickly whipped out his phone as he pushed himself off the ground.

_C'mon, c'mon, c'mon..._

Finally, he saw the familiar 5 letter word and smiled to himself, idly noting that it was, coincidentally, his birthday as well.

_Well... Happy Birthday Chuck._

With that, he hit the 'send' button.

For a moment Bryce felt peace. But only for a moment. Because after that he simply felt pain. It wasn't any one of the broken bones and internal injuries. No. It was fresh. It was new. It was that bullet hole in his chest that oozed red.

He didn't hear the sound of the 9 millimetre firing. Probably because of his now deaf left ear and wrecked right ear. He simply felt something pierce through his body, and then he was pushed to the ground by the force of the bullet.

"Don't move," the voice commanded posthumously, sarcasm dripping from his words. Bryce knew that voice though. It was the same man who'd been after him since his cover had been compromised. John Casey.

Bryce managed to flash Casey a smug smirk when the man had walked over to him.

"Too late, Casey."

John looked over to Bryce's phone and his eyes went wide as he read the words on the screen, right before phone self destructed.

_Message Sent. _

_Chuck._

Before Casey could start grilling Bryce about the message, Larkin inhaled one last time before everything went dark.

* * *

**Casa de Bartowski**

Morgan was talking. His lips were moving, but Chuck wasn't listening.

In fact, he wasn't even in the mood to play _Gears of War_ with Morgan. Although it did mean that Grimes finally got to be Player 1. Bartowski simply sat there watching and pretending to listen to Morgan trying to cheer him up.

He know that his bestfriend meant well, but he was simply too tired to indulge in tom-foolery right now.

"Wow," Morgan snorted as he blasted another alien's head off with a shotgun, "blast from the past."

Chuck's bright brown eyes darted curiously towards Grimes and saw that he wasn't talking about the game, but he was staring at the alert from his computer.

"Bryce remembered your birthday, dude."

"Wha...?"

Now that got his attention. Chuck at up right from his bed and eyed his desktop.

"Y'know, the guy who got you kicked out of school, stole your girl, that guy," Morgan deadpanned as he returned his attention to the game.

Chuck rolled his eyes at the green shirt sitting on his chair and purposely crossed over in front of the screen, "Yeah, Morgan, I think I remember Bryce."

He clicked to open the e-mail, half expecting a long assed apology letter from Bryce, but of course there was no letter. When the file opened (a suspiciously big file, he might add), the screen on his custom desktop suddenly darkened. For a second there, Chuck panicked and wondered if Bryce had sent him a virus for his birthday and silently cursed that man.

After a few seconds though, white words appeared in front of the black background.

_The terrible troll raises its sword._

"What is it?" Morgan asked as he scratched his cheek. He had put down the controller, deciding that this was much more interesting to watch.

Chuck shrugged as he read and re-read the single sentence on his screen. Why would Bryce send this to him on his birthday? Was it his own weird way of trying to get him to forgive his lying, girl stealing ass?

"Zork," Chuck replied Morgan, "You remember Zork? The old text based video game?" When he saw Morgan nodding slowly, Chuck continued, "Well, Bryce and I programmed our own version back in Stanford using a TRS 80."

"Wow, you guys were _really _cool." Morgan smirked. Sarcasm was dripping everywhere.

Chuck ignored it, like he always did and couldn't help but get into game. It brought back so many good memories that he simply couldn't get mad at anyone right now. He was in his happy place.

"If I could only remember what was in my hero's satchel..." he mumbled.

Morgan shot him another look of confusion and Chuck felt a corner of his lips pull into a lopsided smile, "the weapons that I would use to kill the terrible troll."

"Right," Morgan gave a hearty chuckle, "You know what, you're still _really _cool."

"And uh," Chuck smiled apologetically at his bestfriend, "you're going home."

"Is it that time?"

"It's that time."

"RIght."

With that, Morgan turned and quickly began to pack his stuff into his messenger bag. It was a sort of code between the two of them. Sometimes Morgan simply overstayed his welcome and it made Ellie uncomfortable, and sometimes it even made Chuck feel a little weirded out. So they made a code. When Chuck said that it was 'that time', it meant that Morgan has got to go.

"Paddle safe!" Bartowski hollered out to his friend and he could hear him yell back something along the lines of 'Thank You.". Chuck felt a corner of his lips pull into a lopsided smile again.

Finally alone in his room, Chuck continued to stare at the single line on his screen and racked his brain. Thinking back to the time when they had written this line in. Just what did he have in his hero's satchel? Chuck knew that it was something stupid as well, seeing that they had actually named the troll, 'The Terrible Troll".

A little while later, he recalled that moment in time when they were programming this exact bit of the game. Bryce was laughing till his face was pink, saying that the name was just so _stupid._ Chuck was laughing too.

_"Grrr! T'is the terrible troll!" Bryce laughed heartily, "God, this is stupid... We suck at naming things."_

_"Yeah," Chuck grinned widely at his friend, "and of course, the only way to kill the terrible troll is by using the naaaaaaaasty knife!"_

_Bryce burst into another round of laughter, face positively pink from lack of oxygen, "Dude you're killing me!" He snorted uncharacteristically._

Chucked smiled at that memory. One from the better times. He suddenly felt a wave of affection for his friend. Chuck honestly wondered if he was doing well. Sure he ruined his life, but he was curious now. After all, Bryce had actually remembered his birthday. He missed a couple of years, but hey, this was a start. One of the many things Chuck hated about himself was how easily he'd forgive people. Sometimes he just hated being so easily taken advantage of, but it was who he was. It made him, well, him.

He typed in the words carefully, recalling that even a simple typo could screw up the game.

"Attack troll with nasty knife," he muttered to himself, a smile pressing on his lips. Satisfied with his work, he hit the enter button.

What happened next confused the hell out of Chuck. Images began to randomly flash on his screen. In fact, Chuck couldn't help but feel as though he had seen these images before. There were so many, and he felt as if they were all being _unloaded _into his brain. It was like the images were _rar _file and everything was being unzipped into his brain. Eventually, he felt nausea and his head began to throb. Chuck wanted to stop. He wanted to close his eyes and simply go to bed. He's had enough of Bryce's strange message.

But he couldn't.

His eyes refused to shut and he continued to stare at the screen. The images were still being _burnt _into his brain and Chuck couldn't turn away. There were so many voices in his head, buzzing around. He suddenly knew names that he shouldn't know and he saw pictures and photographs that made no sense to him. The names 'Orion' and 'Frost' flashed about prominently, and then they simply disappeared beneath another wave of strange, seemingly random information that just _made no sense._

And then everything went dark.

* * *

**Burbank, L.A**

The Los Angeles sun beat down mercilessly on his forehead.

John Casey had always been told that he had an exceptionally _large _forehead. He didn't know if it was a compliment or something he should be ashamed of because almost immediately after saying that, the person who commented was shot right in the face with John's Mark XIX Desert Eagle. The .50 Action Express exploded from the gun and most of the man's face became chips and chunks that flew all over the place.

Good times.

When all his men had boarded their ride, a black sedan, John fished out his PDA and began to read through the mission brief. Their target was a man named Chuck Bartowski. A background run on the name brought up some interesting information. Like the fact that Chuck had went to the same university as Bryce Larkin.

He closed his eyes as he recalled the meeting he had just hours ago.

_"Bryce Larkin was CIA. Graham," Beckman glared hard at the tall, dark skinned man next to her, "he was one of your agents."_

_"And it was the NSA's job to find him. To question him, not to kill him." Graham shot back, slight irritation in his rich baritone voice._

_When Casey had walked into the destroyed Intersect Room, Graham had immediately sensed the agent, turning his body towards him. "Thanks to Rambo here, we found nothing."_

_"No." John smirked, "We got a dead CIA agent. That's a gold star in my book."_

_Beckman would have none of this silly, schoolyard arguments. "If this gets out-"_

_"It won't." Casey assured._

_Graham furrowed his heavy brows, "Nobody has to-"_

_Beckman held a hand up at the CIA Director, a small smile played across her lips, "Actually they did. Major Casey is heading up this investigation."_

_Graham frowned deeply, clearly irritated by the step over his head. The step into his territory._

_John grunted, getting the fuming directors back on track, "So, what was Bryce after? What does this computer do?"_

_"This computer did everything. After 9/11, the NSA and the CIA were told to play nice. Share their intel. This is how we did it." Beckman sighed dejectedly, folding her arms across her chest._

_For once, Graham seemed to share the sentiment as her, folding his arms as well, "Every scrap of data we had went into this computer."_

_Diane Beckman rubbed the bridge of her nose as frustration began to wreck havoc in her brain, "The data was encrypted into thousands of images. Whoever received Bryce's email got all of our secrets." She shot an angry glare at Casey, "Find those secrets, Casey."_

_John nodded seriously as he fished out the fried device from his pocket, "Found this on Larkin. Hard drive's fried. Picked up a trace signature."_

_"Where?" Both directors asked in unison, something that clearly irritated both of them._

_"Los Angeles._ _Weather's perfect, been feeling a little pasty." John Casey smirked as he stepped out of the debris._

Casey felt a grunt rising from his throat but managed to hold it down. The car was quiet and he didn't want to be the one to break the peaceful silence. He had been warned by Beckman that the CIA might have sent one of their agents in. Casey was to set up in Burbank and wait for further instructions. This might take a couple of days, seeing that the CIA just _loved _to dilly dally around with their seduction games and beating around the bush. Casey was a man of action, and when there _is _no action around, his trigger finger twitched and he felt the need to strangle people.

He began to read up on the agent that the CIA had sent in. One Sarah Walker. She was a blond bombshell with bright blue eyes and full, pink lips. Not his type though. Casey preferred mature women. This one was barely legal, in his opinion. Maybe it was just the father instincts kicking in, with his ex-wife sending him another letter, talking about Alex and her new boyfriend.

Casey grunted as he scrolled through her resume. He had to admit that it was pretty impressive. Most had been blacked out, meaning that she had been in many top secret operations that the government would rather leave a secret. This in turn told him that Walker was one of their best.

Something stood out from her profile though. John couldn't help the smirk that crawled up his face. She was partnered with the one and only Bryce Larkin and the reports seem to suggest that those two were more than just colleagues.

_Now this oughta be interesting._

* * *

**Buy More**

**Nerd Herd Counter**

"Fellow nerds, today is going to be a very bad day. We've got a computer virus on our hands. They're calling this one the Irene Demova virus." Chuck announced seriously as he glanced over at each of the Nerd Herders surrounding him.

There was Anna Wu of Asian descent. Pretty girl, but her fashion and lifestyle choices freaked him out. And then there was Lester Patel and Jeff Barnes, each standing in front of the counter and staring right back at Chuck. These two were just downright _strange_. The others weren't coming in until afternoon when their shift started and Chuck ticked them off mentally, reminding himself that he'd have to brief the second shifts about the new virus as well.

There was a snicker that brought Chuck back to reality. He stared blankly at Lester, the culprit, and sighed heavily, a ghost of a smile played across his lips, " Yes, yes, it is named after the Serbian porn star."

He dug out a laptop from under and placed it squarely on the counter, switching the machine on. "This is a nasty one, kids. It's a computer killer. Last night," he logged into the computer, "the display version of our Prism Express laptop was fried when _someone_," Chuck glanced towards Morgan who was watching a few feet away from them, "decided to enter Miss Demova's website"

Morgan immediately feigned ignorance and ran behind some shelves, yelling something about going to help out a customer. Guilty as charged, Chuck thought amusedly.

When Bartowski typed in the website, he turned to Anna, "Anna, close the eyes." She, of course, rolled her eyes at him and returned her attention to the laptop. Chuck grinned, "anyway, when you enter the website, _this _happens."

The moment he hit _enter_, pop-ups began to invade the screen. Porn was everywhere and Chuck noticed that Lester was getting a little too excited. Soon after though, the pop-ups and Ms Demova's sultry voice-over quickly began distorted and the screen started to warp and flicker. Seconds later, the screen _popped_ and the laptop was dead.

Chuck noticed that Anna was looking over to the other side of the Buy More and he followed her gaze. Morgan had returned to his position before he ran away and even when Chuck stared at his bestfriend right in the eye, Morgan shrugged, "Sorry, Chuck, she drives me crazy!" He sighed dramatically, "that's love."

He couldn't help but smile at that. Forever the jester. Morgan flipped the switch on the remote he was holding and returned to work. The TVs came to life and the news blared loudly. The voice of the newscaster travelled to his ears and suddenly, a flurry of strange images, schematics and layouts flashed through his mind.

It was just like before.

When Chuck had woke up this morning, he was lying on the floor. Morgan had come pick him up and for some strange reason, he had a killer of a headache, like his brain was just stuffed. He remembered that it had something to do with the weird e-mail Bryce sent but he couldn't quite recall what happened exactly.

Even when he was in the shower and the radio was informing everyone that security at Burbank Airport would be tightened, Chuck had experienced a mad rush of information that seemed to pour out of his head. Something about a General and a terrorist.

By now, Anna was staring at Chuck, dark eyes filled with concern and curiosity.

"Who's already here, Chuckles?" she asked, brows furrowed slightly.

Chuck glanced back at his team. Even Jeff seemed to be confused at his detached stare just now. Apparently, Bartowski had been daze-talking just now, saying something about someone having already landed in Burbank.

_The General has already landed here last night..._

Not that it was any of his business of course. He quickly let the Herders return to their stations and he stood at the counter alone, shaking his head slightly. Even when he closed his eyes, he could still see the images running through his head. Just what had Bryce done to him?

* * *

**Burbank, L.A**

**Buy More, Front Entrance**

She checked her hair once again, making sure that every strand was as perfect as they could be. She checked that her make-up was in place and that she had mastered her sultry look. Sarah needed to make sure that this went _perfectly_.

She read through his profile again. The one that Graham had sent her just hours ago. The target's name was Chuck Bartowski. An ethnic name. His photo was one from his Buy More employee database. Bright brown eyes that suggested that he was probably a pretty smart cookie. Clean shaven, except for what seemed like thick sideburns on either sides of his boyish face. He had wild, chocolate brown curls that were probably impossible to tame.

Chuck was handsome in a boyish sense. Maybe a little chubby, but it was probably because of all that time he spent sitting in front of his computer. She glanced further down on the report.

_Stanford?_

She frowned. So he _was _a smart cookie. So why Buy More? The more she read, the more intrigued she got. It was when she read about Chuck's relationship with Bryce Larkin that she stopped. Sarah had almost thrown her iPhone into the windshield when she saw his name. That name brought up so much memories and emotions, she had almost wanted to run down the green shirt that was pushing the trolleys into the store.

_He was roommates with Bryce?_

Sarah sighed heavily and chewed on her lower lip. If this Chuck Bartowski was in league with Bryce, then she would have no choice but to put a bullet into his brain.

_I'm sorry, Chuck._

* * *

**Buy More**

**Nerd Herd Counter**

"Stop the presses. Who's that? Vicki Vale!"

Chuck heard him, but he refused to look up. He was on the phone, waiting for the customer to return to him, but he could hear the gruff sounding man curse and hiss at his computer and Chuck repeatedly heard slamming of keyboard and mouse and couldn't help wincing. Morgan was probably just doing his impressions again anyway.

Nonetheless, Chuck was bored, so he began to make scratchy noises, like on the DJ set, "Vicki Vale. Vicki Vicki VaIe. Vicki VaIe. Vicki Vicki-"

He had noticed that Morgan had stiffened, and his bestfriend was stuttering and poking at his arm. Finally Bartowski looked up from the phone and what he saw made him drop the plastic receiver unceremoniously and suddenly he was very, _very _self-conscious of his hair, his tie and the fact that he was just making weird rap noises.

_S-She's..._

The girl was beautiful. Actually, she was beyond beautiful. Long blond hair cascaded down her back and she had the brightest blue eyes. When she smiled, Chuck couldn't help but feel his heart quicken its pace, beating so hard he was worried that the woman would hear it. Her teeth were a little crooked, but it just reminded him that she was human, that she wasn't just a figment of his imagination. She was drop dead gorgeous, nonetheless.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," she stared right into his eyes and he couldn't help the fierce blush that dominated over his face.

"No! Not at all!" Chuck blurted out. He then glanced towards Morgan who was paying him no heed at all, instead, he was staring dreamily at the blond. Chuck glanced down at the receiver and figured that the man was probably no gonna come back so he quickly put the phone back in place.

She had a brow cocked curiously, probably waiting for him to say something. "That's from-" he coughed nervously, "that's from Batman." Chuck offered weakly, swallowing hard, trying to calm his nerves.

"Cause that makes it better...?" She smiled amusedly at him.

Bartowski laughed nervously. Of course this beautiful woman must think he's such a weirdo!

Morgan quickly interjected, holding his hand out, "Hi, I'm Morgan, and this is" he jutted his thumb into his bestfriend's chest, "this is Chuck."

Chuck flapped his nametag/pocket protector self consciously. Great, now the woman knew his name. She'd be laughing about it with her girlfriends soon after, he was sure.

"Wow, I didn't think people still name their kids Chuck" her bright blue eyes stared right into Chuck's and then she turned to the bearded man beside her, "...or Morgan, for that matter."

She probably didn't mean it that way, but it was an opening nonetheless, and they just couldn't help themselves. Chuck grinned, "My parents were sadists," he then pointed a finger at Morgan, "and carnival freaks found him in a dumpster-"

Morgan nodded along, "But they raised me as one of their own."

The woman laughed a little and her smile blinded him. Chuck could feel his nerves tangle and making little knots in his stomach. The longer he stood here with the woman, the more summersaults his tummy was doing.

"So, how can I help you..." Chuck trailed off, watching as the woman's eyes snapped up and she smiled as she reached into her bag.

She gave a little laugh as she placed the phone pieces on the counter, "Sarah." her eyes came up to Chuck's again, smiling, "I'm here about this."

Bartowski ignored the fluttering in his heart and stomach and nodded quickly, getting into nerd mode, "Oh yeah, the intel cell. Absolutely." He cleared his throat as he focused on the machine, "This model has a little screw that pops loose right in the back here."

Chuck gestured for Sarah, popping in the battery and tightening the screw at the back. He wondered briefly why a girl like her would still be using an old model like the Motorola.

"You just give it a couple of quick turns," he muttered, "and good as new. No problem."

As he handed the cell phone over, Chuck flashed her a congratulatory grin. He actually felt pretty proud of himself.

Sarah smiled widely at Chuck, blue eyes staring intently at him, causing a little blush to crawl up his tanned skin, "Wow, you geeks are good."

One of Chuck's thick brows cocked and he glanced towards Morgan, who mirrored his look. They turned back to Sarah, who seemed genuinely perplexed.

"Nerds. Nerds. I would say more...I mean, you know," Chuck explained nervously, gesturing at the large banner sitting right above them, "Nerd Herd."

Just as Sarah was about to say something, a man rushed over to the counter and startled Chuck. He was panting slightly and he held in one hand, a digital camcorder and a little girl's hand in the other. He assumed that she was his daughter, seeing that the man's dark brown eyes and pudgy nose was copied on the little girl's face.

"Excuse me, excuse me. I, uh, I have an emergency. I don't know what I did wrong, but I, uh, I shot the entire recital, and now it won't play back." He blurted out hurriedly, clearly panicking.

Chuck cleared his throat and reached for the camcorder, trying to calm the man down since he was clearly scaring his daughter, "Okay, okay, we'll just take a look," he opened up the tape slot and a brow cocked, "and you don't have a tape in here..."

"But it's digital." The man said as if it was Chuck who was the wrong one. Stupid, stupid Nerd boy! It's digital! What tape?

Chuck sighed heavily while Morgan muttered something along the lines of 'Oh Boy'. Bartowski felt a corner of his lips pull, "Right, yes, but you still need digital tape." He shot the man a 'I'm sorry' look.

The man quickly became distraught, all colour fading from his face. The little girl next to him frowned deeply, her dark brown eyes seemed to well up a little.

"Oh no, oh no, Mom's gonna kill me." he choked out.

Chuck glanced between the freaking out dad, the disappointed girl and Sarah. Sarah gave him a shrug, indicating that she had no idea if she could help in this situation. He looked at the digital clock over at the far end of the Buy More.

_We still have time before Big Mike wakes up from his nap..._

"Ah, Morgan, I need the wall." Chuck ordered with authority. Morgan nodded seriously and ran off.

Chuck then glanced over to a surprised Sarah and offered her a weak, apologetic smile, "I'm so sorry." He then turned to the confused father, "Excuse me, this way." He began to usher the man towards the wall of TVs by the left side of the Buy More.

By then, Morgan had already gotten the crew ready. Anna was on one knee as she handled the camera. Morgan, Jeff and Lester were helping with clearing the seats that were sitting in front of the Tvs. Chuck coordinated the men and within a few minutes, they were all set up. He glanced briefly towards the crowd which had gathered and saw that Sarah was watching curiously with the rest of them.

He then walked over to the girl and smiled, "Are you ready?"

She shook her head frantically.

"What's wrong?"

The girl cast her gaze down to the floor, "I'm usually in the back row."

"Why?"

"I'm too tall," she said with a small frown, "I block the other ballerinas."

Chuck furrowed his brows at that. He then flashed the girl the signature Bartowski smile, "Can I tell you a secret?"

The girl watched Chuck curiously. He looked at her seriously, "Real ballerinas _are_ tall."

With that, her doubts seemed to disappear and a small smile crawled up her face. He nodded at the girl and she nodded back.

She was ready.

* * *

Sarah didn't really know what was going on. This certainly was a treat, though.

Chuck Bartowski was... different. He was so much different to the image that she had conjured up. In fact, she had figured that when the man had asked for help, Bartowski would ignore the man, or give him some stupid excuse, so that he could talk to her.

One thing that she knew for sure was that Chuck liked her. In fact, every time she looked at him straight in the eyes, his tanned skin burned red and he would try to avoid her stare. Frankly, it was kind of cute. She haven't met a man quite like Chuck in a long, long time.

Sarah knew that it would be easy for her to get Chuck to fall in love with her. A little lash action, a well placed smile, a throaty chuckle. This was all she needed. Chuck Bartowski was an easy mark. She did feel that it would be quite a pity if Chuck was working for Bryce. He looked like such a nice guy.

_It's always the nice guys..._

Sarah took a deep breath to collect her thoughts. She let her CIA training kick in. Never judge a book by its cover. Chuck may look like a nice kid, but if he was friends with Bryce, if he was in league with Bryce and his schemes, then Chuck had already betrayed Sarah, before he even knew her.

She watched curiously as Chuck bent down to the little girl's level and he spoke to her. The girl seemed to be worried about something.

"Can I tell you a secret?" she heard Chuck say to her.

The girl nodded.

"Real ballerinas _are_ tall."

Sarah couldn't help but smile at that. A real, genuine smile. She kept her eyes locked on Chuck. He was grinning at the girl, giving her a thumbs' up as he stepped away. It was hard to find a man who'd go out of his way to help somebody these days. At least not without compensation. Walker was sure that it didn't matter how many people you helped at the Nerd Herd. As long as you turned up and nobody complained, you kept your job.

Even a regular employee wouldn't go out of his way like what Chuck was doing right now.

Sarah watched as the little girl danced. She never did anything like that as a child. She was mostly out with her dad, doing jobs. Her mom hated it but she loved being with her dad. When the dance was over and everyone was clapping for the girl, she glanced over to Chuck, and at the same time, he glanced over to her. He smiled, and she couldn't help the tug in the corners of her lips. Before she knew it, she was smiling back at him too.

Sarah waited as Chuck started to wade his way through the small crowd. It was then that she saw a short, Asian man in the Buy More green shirt plant himself right in Chuck's path. They seemed to be discussing something important, so Sarah decided to go into plan B.

She dug out one of her calling cards and left it on the counter, confident that Chuck would know what to do with it. Soon after, she left.

She figured that Chuck would call her the moment he found the card. Nerds like him usually did.

* * *

**Elias Heights Hotel**

**Sarah's room**

When she didn't receive his call for several hours, Sarah pretty much gave up on waiting and decided to just see if the files were in Bartowski's computer. This meant that she had to break into his house and find that machine.

_Why didn't he call though...?_

Sarah wasn't really sure what to make of Chuck Bartowski. She was so sure that he would've called by now. Frankly, she was wasting time with this waiting around. Graham had already informed her that Casey was investigating and that it was just a matter of time before CIA loses their hand to the NSA.

She dug out her black cargo pants (straight cuts), dark long sleeved shirt and she pulled her black Kevlar vest over her shirt. One could never be too careful. For all she knew, Bartowski _was _working with Bryce and his room might be booby trapped, or he might have a gun.

Sarah tightened the laces on her black combat boots and shoved her mask into her purse. When she was satisfied that her attire was complete, Walker grabbed her brown coat and walked out with her purse in hand.

When she got into her car, Sarah made sure to drive quickly. It wouldn't be long before Bartowski ended his shift at the Buy More. Walker slapped herself mentally, reprimanding herself.

_Should've made better preparations..._

By the time she had reached Echo Park, the sun had already set somewhat. Sarah noted that her only point of entry (that would allow her a quick getaway) would be the front door. Terribly risky, but it should be made easier since most of the apartments in the complex were unoccupied. She dumped her coat into her backseat and left her car running. It shouldn't take too long to retrieve the computer.

When she walked out and into the courtyard, Sarah quickly figured out which was the Bartowski house (thanks to the blueprints of the area from the CIA database). She peered into the room from the window and smiled to herself. The house was dark and nobody seemed to be at home. Yet. Walker pulled her mask over her face and hissed at how warm it was under here.

She found the front door and with practiced moves, she managed to get the door open within a couple of seconds. When she finally found and stepped into Bartowski's room, Sarah noticed how strangely _neat _it was. Sure there were posters on the wall and figurines on the desk, but Chuck's room was rather neat for a guy.

_And also... It looks like a ten year old's room..._

She couldn't help the smile that played on her lips. He was such a kid, that Chuck Bartowski. Sarah swallowed hard and struggled to retain her professional mask. She was on a job, and time was of the essence. She had wasted too much time already.

She finally found the computer sitting under his desk. After forcefully pulling out all the wires connected to the machine, she looked up and noticed the little post it on his screen that said 'I'm a professional Nerd.'.

_That you are, _Sarah thought amusedly.

Walker grabbed the computer and frowned at the weight of the machine. It was heavier than most computers. She lugged it out to the living room and quite suddenly she heard voices, and even before she could react, the door opened and two men stepped inside.

* * *

**Casa de Bartowski**

It was weird how the door was unlocked.

Chuck had clearly remembered locking it this morning before he left the house. But he wasn't really in the mood to ponder. Morgan was chattering about how he wouldn't call Sarah and Chuck was sure that he would never, _ever _call Sarah.

He was pretty sure that Sarah must've been slightly deranged, or maybe even a serial killer, because he knew that nobody who looked as gorgeous as her would ever leave their number behind for him unless they were at least slightly delusional.

When he stepped into his house with Morgan right beside him, Chuck could already feel that something was different. He flipped the switch by the wall and when the darkness disappeared and light invaded his eyes, he couldn't help but notice the ninja person holding on to his white system unit.

"Please," he swallowed nervously, eyes wide at the strange image, "not the computer."

The ninja put the machine down slowly and Chuck could almost release a sigh of relief, but before he could do that, the ninja quickly stepped into defensive position. The ninja was in some sort of martial arts defence stance and Chuck had played enough fighter games to know that.

He thought that he might want to position himself as well, but Morgan was freaking out beside him and he quickly grabbed one of Ellie's decorative plates and flung it towards the ninja. It should've nailed the intruder right in the face, but the ninja simply punched at it and the plate was flying right back at them. More specifically, it flew right at Chuck and smashed right against his stomach.

"Ouf!" he gasped, all air smacked right out of him.

Morgan didn't seem to notice and grabbed another decorative china, flinging it towards the intruder, who expertly deflected the said decorative china, which conveniently flew towards Bartowski's groin.

"D'oh!" he grabbed his pants as he winced.

Grimes reached for Ellie's favourite vase and Chuck was about to say something when shorter of the two men swung a little too far back and the porcelain vase smashed against Bartowski's head.

Chuck turned his head slowly, brown eyes glaring at Morgan, who in turn, glared right back at Chuck, yelling, " COME ON, CHUCK! DO SOMETHING!"

Bartowski rolled his eyes and tried to straighten his back as he walked towards the ninja, gesturing at his computer, " Give me that-"

The intruder tilted his head curiously and then decided to pick up the computer. Chuck thought for a second that maybe the ninja might've had a change of heart, but of course, the intruder threw the computer at him and Chuck's lanky arms quickly flew towards it, grabbing it mid-air.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE-"

Immediately after Chuck had grabbed the computer, the ninja swept him off his feet with a well placed kick and the white system unit was mid air again. Another kick from the ninja sent Bartowski smashing against the painting on the wall, falling, and then smashing through the shoe cabinets. The ninja grabbed the computer swiftly, right before it landed on the ground and placed it on one of the wall shelves.

Of course, Chuck knew that it wasn't such a good idea. The shelves were weak and it wasn't meant to hold up items the size of his customized gaming unit. That thing was heavy, even for a big boy like Chuck.

Morgan, who had been watching this spectacle, finally decided that that was the last straw. " That's my friend!" He grabbed one of Awesome's golf clubs and with a loud yell, rushed towards the intruder, who quickly snatched the club away from Grimes, swinging the metal dangerously near the 5 foot 7 inch man.

"Okay, look, he's not that good a friend." Morgan bit his tongue as his hand flew up in surrender. Chuck grunted in annoyance from his uncomfortable position in the debris.

The ninja whacked Morgan in the face, sending the man flying towards Chuck. Grimes landed on top of Chuck with all air knocked out of his lungs, and the two men were now in very compromising positions, with Morgan's butt to Chuck's face and vice versa.

Before the ninja could finish them off, a sickening, smacking sound came from the shelf and Chuck knew exactly what was happening. The shelf was sliding off the wall, with his computer sitting on top of it.

"Oh God."

Everything came crashing down and the white system unit was fried. The casing had fallen apart and the insides of the machine had fallen out, crushed by a piece of the shelf that came down with it. The trio stared at the machine for a while, and then the ninja quickly bolted towards the door. Chuck was still rather stunned by the entire event.

Something then clicked in his muddled head, "...Didn't _you _hang that shelf?"

Morgan simply groaned.

* * *

**Buy More**

**Storage Area**

"I've been through it. It's fried. Dead." Lester droned on, flipping his hair dramatically as his eyes narrowed at Chuck, "Its hard drive is...murdered."

Chuck sighed heavily as he frowned at the bits and pieces of what used to be an _awesome _computer. Now it's just plastic that weighs too much.

"What if you're an unwitting target of a ninja vendetta and he returns tonight to strangle you with his nunchuks?" Jeff offered monotonously.

Bartowski stared incredulously at his colleague. Jeff had always been a weird one. Almost twice of Chuck's age, Jeff had been working here at Buy More way before him and Morgan came along.

"That's super, Jeff. Thanks for thinking outside the box on that one." Chuck deadpanned, "And here I thought I couldn't get any more freaked out."

Barnes winked at Chuck. Bartowski's eyes went wide as he stared at the man. Jeff winked again, this time with his other eye and Chuck had pretty much used up his quota of weirdness for today. He inched away from Jeff, frowning, "I... think I'm gonna go buy some new locks next door at Large Mart."

As he left, he could still feel Lester and Jeff's eyes on him, boring into his back.

Chuck shuddered.

* * *

**Large Mart**

For most parts, Large Mart was strangely empty.

This frustrated Chuck, since if he couldn't get his locks, pay, and then get back to his post at the Buy More, Harry Tang would have yet another thing to bitch about Chuck during the Assistant Manager interviews. Tang had been eyeing the assistant manager spot for a while now and while Chuck had never intended on managing anything, he just couldn't quite imagine working under Tang.

What a nightmare _that_ would be.

By now, he had spent the last 5 minutes walking around the store, and he hadn't come across anybody at all, which was strange since Large Mart was quite a strong Buy More competitor. He couldn't imagine that they'd leave their store _empty _like that.

Finally, he saw a man in a dark leather jacket, browsing through some tools and Chuck approached with a sigh of relief.

" Thank God. Excuse me, sir. Do you know where they sell-"

The images came hard and fast. As Chuck's eyes registered the man's face, a billion images flashed through his brain. There were photographs of exploding buildings and schematics of bombs and even the different names and aliases of the man standing right in front of him. This man was a Serbian Demolitions Expert.

The man seemed irritated that Chuck had disturbed him. The Serbian narrowed his dark eyes at Bartowski as a grimace quickly formed on his lips, " What do you want?"

Chuck swallowed hard, stuttering as he inched away from the man. "Um-um, sorry" he coughed nervously, "sorry, nothing. Nothing at all. I was just, uh, wow, look at that." The curly haired man laughed nervously and quickly turned away from the Serbian.

_JESUS. GOD. SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT._

Chuck walked away from the man as naturally as he could, pretending to be looking over some of the other items on display, but his pace was weird and quickened and he could just feel the man's unblinking eyes on him. The Serbian was on to him, definitely. The way Chuck had stared at the man... It was of recognition. Surely a Demolition's Expert must've seen right through his stuttering facade.

As Chuck walked down the aisle, he could hear the footsteps following behind. The empty Large Mart echoed with the sound of something heavy and metallic scraping against steel. Bartowski swallowed hard and allowed himself one glance back.

The Serbian was holding a large bolt cutter, easily the length of his leg, and it look heavy. Probably heavy enough to bash his brains in. Chuck felt his stomach do all sorts of flips and summersaults and frankly, he was ready to throw up on the spot. Soon after, the Serbian walked further down the aisle and shoved the bolt cutter in, and Chuck felt his nerves calm down a little. But just a little.

Because right after that, Chuck could hear the hand reach for something else and it was the sound of him loading the nail gun that finally sent Bartowski into a flurry of panic. He glanced back again, and the Serbian stared right at him, dark eyes following Bartowski's every move. _You're a dead man_.

Chuck bolted with a yelp, determined to get out this aisle and back to the counters. But his escape route, his _only _escape route (other than to boldly run past the Serbian), was suddenly blocked by a succession of forklifts. Chuck turned behind, mouth agape as the Serbian inched towards the trembling Nerd Herder, nail gun in hand.

Finally, the onslaught of forklifts seemed to stop and Chuck immediately took the chance to run out the other corner, forcing himself not to look behind, knowing that the Serbian was probably right on his tail.

_I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die!_

He didn't know where he was running. In fact, he haven't been to Large Mart very much because he knew that Big Mike would throw a fit if he caught Chuck at the competitor's. It wasn't his fault that Buy More didn't sell locks and other tools though.

It was when he bumped into something small (and it yelped) that Chuck stopped running. He glanced down, realizing that he had run straight into one of the Large Mart employees. Relief flushed through his body and he couldn't help he nervous, happy laugh that escaped his lips.

"Oh, thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God, listen, listen. There's a guy-" He swallowed a lungful of air, "there's a guy here - he's, he's trying to do something-" his brown eyes darted around them, watching out for the Serbian, " I don't know. You have to call the cops-"

The woman, half of Chuck's size, frowned deeply, "Uh huh. What kinda guy?" she asked sceptically.

"Scary kind of Terminator vibe, stubble, red hair-"

"Black leather jacket?"

His eyes widened dramatically. Was he standing right behind him right now? Was Chuck really going to die here at the Large Mart?

"He's right behind me isn't he..." he whimpered.

The dark skinned Large Mart employee rolled her eyes as she pointed over Chuck's shoulders, "No, but he's laughin' with the cashier, way over there." With that, the woman scoffed and walked away.

It was now that Chuck realized that the Large Mart was suddenly filled with people. The Serbian seemed to be flirting with the cashier and Chuck a heavy weight lift off his chest. He felt like he could collapse right here, right now. Was he wrong? Was that man _not _a Serbian terrorist? Could he trust those random images that flashed through his brain at all?

This was too exhausting.

_Just what's wrong with me...?_

* * *

**Buy More**

**Parking Lot**

"I have eyes on him right now. Like I said, the computer was destroyed. Beyond repair."

A heavy sigh on the other end indicated that the CIA director was _not_ pleased. Her bright blue eyes concentrated on the curly haired Nerd Herder who was stalking down to the Buy More, clearly disturbed by something, since he kept looking over his shoulders.

"Okay. It's done. I want you in the air in an hour." He ordered. Sarah could just imagine the large, dark skinned man folding his arms across his chest in disappointment.

"But what if he has an external drive? A back-up?" She offered. Nerds like Chuck usually had one of those don't they? She knew that Bryce did. She recalled how he would slip into his inner nerd whenever it came to computers. Larkin even mentioned that he had learnt from the best. That he had learnt everything he knew from his old college buddy, whom she knew now as Chuck Bartowski.

"It's over, Sarah." Graham's gruff baritone growled lowly, "The NSA has struck again. Bryce was CIA; he was our guy, and he burned us." He exhaled deeply, "Casey is on his way out."

She felt her eyes widen slightly at the name, but the surprise quickly disappeared and Sarah had her professional mask on again. Of course they had sent John Casey. The same man who had killed Bryce and the same man who had hunted her partner down ever since Larkin's cover was blown.

_EX-Partner. You're not with him anymore, Sarah. He was a traitor. Doesn't matter what he told you, what he said to you, they were all lies._

Sarah sighed at her inner voice. She had to stop thinking of Bryce as her partner. He betrayed her, and partners don't do that.

"You're being recalled." Graham added wistfully.

Sarah's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Cause of Casey?" Her voice was spiteful. She admired Casey as an agent and she'd be the first to admit that the Major has had a very impressive track record, but a job was a job, and this was hers, and it was personal. "He's a burnout."

"He's a killer, Sarah. Old school." Graham chided." I want you to listen to me." His voice was suddenly soft. The hard edge from before disappearing completely, "Whatever happened with Bryce, you couldn't have known. You couldn't have stopped it-"

_I don't need your pity._

"I can fix it." Walker interjected angrily. She then sighed as she looked into the side mirror of her car, running a hand through her long, blond locks, "If there's a back-up, I'll find it. Just give me 12 hours."

Before Graham could protest, Sarah disconnected and stepped out, brushing her form fitting pencil skirt down and making sure that her tight pink blouse showed off her curves perfectly.

She was a woman on a mission, and no one was about to stop her from getting to Chuck Bartowski.

* * *

**Buy More**

**Nerd Herd Counter**

When Sarah entered the Buy More, she was glad to see that nobody but her target was there. This made for less distractions (for Chuck) and she could get on with the program. Chuck had his head tucked in his arms, face down and mumbling something to himself. When she reached the counter, she could clearly hear him chanting to himself that he was going insane.

At this, she furrowed her brows a little. Did her little display at the Bartowski house affect him so much? Chuck was freaked out, this much she could tell. His broad shoulders were slumped and his voice was gravelly, like the voice of someone who had just woken up, or just downright dejected. She _did _recall that the little bearded man smashing a vase against his head though. Maybe that was it.

_Or maybe it's because you almost kicked him through a wall..._

Sarah shook the thoughts out of her head. She hadn't kicked _that _hard. It was merely get him off of her.

When it didn't seem like Bartowski would be noticing her anytime soon, Sarah tapped the little silver bell on the counter and waited for his head to snap up. However, at the sound of the bell, Chuck grunted irritably and grabbed her hand, stopping her from tapping the bell again. His head was still face down, obviously tired and in no mood for nonsense.

"Morgan, not now." He said in a surprisingly attractive voice. Maybe it was the gravelly, sleepy quality of his voice. Or maybe it was because he was holding (and squeezing) her hand right now that made her cheeks burn slightly.

When he finally realized that he wasn't holding on to Morgan's hand, his head came up slowly and his bright brown eyes travelled from her hand, up her arm, and then focused on her face. His eyes immediately went wide and he almost throw her hand right back in her face, a fiery blush burned fiercely against his tanned skin.

"H-Hi! Hi!" He cleared his throat uncomfortably, "Y-Yeah, sorry about that-" He coughed nervously and then something seemed to click in his head, "Um, phone trouble again?"

It was comical, how he seemed to fish out the screwdriver from out of nowhere. The smile that came onto her face was, surprisingly, genuine.

"Uh, yeah. I'm not sure I'm able to receive calls..." she looked up at him shyly, "...cause I never got one from you."

Chuck began to stutter and the fierce pink on his face became a full blown _red_. Sarah figured that if she tried hard enough, she might be able to get Chuck to implode.

Behind her, Sarah heard someone snicker. It sounded suspiciously like Chuck's little bearded friend. Bartowski narrowed his eyes at his best friend and Sarah felt her lips pull up again. It seemed like she was always smiling when she was with Chuck.

"I'm sorry I left so quickly yesterday. I had an appointment with a realtor." She fiddled with her hands idly touching where Chuck's hands where just seconds ago, looking up at him from beneath her long lashes, "I just moved here."

She could see Chuck's bright brown eyes light up at the last sentence. She had him right where she wanted.

"Welcome!" He grinned, the hand with the screwdriver flew up. Chuck glanced at the screwdriver and quickly threw it under the counter, on the desk with the other tools.

Sarah smiled right back at him, blue eyes staring straight at Chuck's bright brown ones, "Thanks. I, uh, don't really know anyone here. I was wondering if you could show me around..." She noticed that his eyes were growing wider and wider with every word and couldn't help her own growing smile, "That is, if you're free..."

"Oh, he's free. He is," A voice from behind chirped excitedly, "he has got _nothing_ but time on his hands. He is very available. You guys are gonna have a great time!" Sarah turned behind and saw a grinning bearded man nodding to himself, obviously proud of himself for helping his buddy along.

Suddenly he stopped grinning and Sarah glanced back at Chuck, who was glaring hard at the green shirt. Soon after, his little bearded friend was hollering at an invisible costumer, effectively making himself scarce.

Chuck exhaled loudly and when he turned back to Sarah, he chuckled exasperatedly, "Apparently, my schedule's wide open."

"Great," Walker smiled and Chuck laughed nervously. She noted that it seemed to be the effect she had on him. Every time she smiled, he'd laugh, or his grin would grow so wide it stretched his face. It was...cute.

* * *

**Outside Buy More**

**Parking Lot**

He watched as she walked out, head high, confident smirk on her face.

It seems like she had accomplished whatever she had come here to do. Casey figured that he'd tail the agent, see what she has up her sleeves. The NSA might be able to use agent Walker's operation to retrieve the target. With that in mind, Casey simply sat back and watched as Walker stepped into her car and drove away.

* * *

**Casa De Bartowski**

"Hey, Chuck." Ellie greeted her brother, eyes never leaving the TV. She was much too tired to move from her spot. It didn't help that she was leaning comfortably on Devon's chest, and it didn't hurt that her boyfriend was smoking hot.

Chuck stood by the door, looking completely serious, "Ellie, Captain, don't freak out."

Silly brother. If he said not to freak out, she always felt the worry build up within. Her maternal instincts were kicking in again as her bright brown eyes focused on her brother.

"Remain calm. I have some news." Chuck's hands were coconsciously making that 'down boy' motion to try to calm her.

Quite suddenly Morgan rushed in and pounced on her brother without warning, laughing and grinning, hugging him like a koala bear, "Chuck's got a date!"

"What? Who?" Ellie's grimace had pulled into a wide smile. She had tried so hard to set him up with her friends, and some of them are really, honestly, very decent women, but he was never interested. She had always wondered why Chuck hadn't been snatched up already. He was such a sweetie!

Devon flashed Chuck a toothy grin, his left hand giving him a thumbs up, "Way to go, Chuck. That's awesome."

Ellie's excitement quickly overcame her lethargy from her full shift at the hospital as she beamed happily at her younger brother. Her excitement quickly gave way to horror when she realized that her brother haven't been on a date in so long. She didn't want him to mess this up!

"What are you gonna wear?" She asked, fear written all over her face.

Chuck knew that look on Ellie's face. It meant that she would be all over him. That she would be facilitating every aspect of his appearance from now until his date tonight. His smile quickly faded into a scowl.

* * *

**Sarah's Apartment**

She had a few hours till her 12 hour grace period ended.

The plan was to flirt, pretend to love everything about him, lead the date towards the bedroom, distract him/knock him out, find that hard disk. It was that easy. It was that simple.

But one could never be too careful. Bartowski seems like really nice guy, but tonight would be the night she'd determine if it was possible that he was in league with Bryce. If he could be trusted.

She took a quick shower, letting the water run down her body, washing away her worries. For about 20 minutes, Sarah Walker was at peace.

After she was done with her shower, Sarah stepped out with a towel wrapped snugly against her body. She searched around for a hairdryer. While her new apartment was nice (courtesy of the CIA), she knew that she wouldn't be staying long (as usual) and hadn't bothered to personalize the place.

Yes, some make-up and perfumes sat at the counter in front of the mirror, but her appearance was essential to her job, and it was pretty much her workplace. If it was allowed, Sarah would much rather wear her sweatpants and oversized Harvard hoodie, walking around with no make-up and messy blond hair pushed away from her face.

She put on her black lacy underwear and bra and slipped on her band of throwing knives. Sarah never leaves for a mission without her throwing knives. Unless, of course her outfit had no place to hide the knives.

When she had dried her hair, Walker brushed her long, blond locks and bunned them up, holding the hair in place with two strategically placed steel sticks (Secretly a weapon). She put on her tunic and black leggings and when everything was done, Walker stared into the stranger in the mirror.

Tonight, she would not be Sarah Walker.

Tonight, she was going to be Chuck Bartowski's perfect woman.

_Get your game face on, Sarah._

Her phone rang. She glanced over and noticed the 'Unknown Number'. Of course, it would be Langston Graham, her director.

"He's picking me up for our 'date'." she told him the moment she picked up the phone, already anticipating his question.

"You're on your own on this one, Sarah." He reminded her seriously. An agent without back-up was more or less a dead agent. There was a reason CIA always paired up their agents. "I can't help you if something goes wrong."

_Was anything really going to go wrong through...?_

Her mind flashed to Chuck's ecstatic smile when she had asked him out. Those bright, brown eyes. That goofy grin...

"I don't know about this guy, Graham." She admitted softly. It wasn't often that Sarah doubted her judgment.

"Nice guys don't get sent government secrets..." Graham reminded gravely.

With a sigh, Walker nodded to herself. It was true, Graham's statement. It couldn't be a coincidence that Bryce had sent him the files. There had to be a reason. "What should I do if he runs?"

There was a knock on her door and she knew that he was here. Sarah walked over to the door and paused when Graham's baritone voice delivered those words the same time she twisted the knob open and saw a grinning Chuck staring back at her with a bouquet of flowers in his hands.

"_Kill him_."

* * *

**Javier's - Mexican Restaurant**

He didn't know if he should've brought her to a Mexican place but Ellie had said that it was one of the most romantic restaurants in town, with mood lighting and spacious booths. The food wasn't half bad either.

Chuck remembered to steer off the burritos though. He didn't need to make _that _kind of impression on a first date.

The night went smoothly, or at least, he thought so. They both ordered different dishes (Chuck went with Fajitas while Sarah ordered Enchiladas) but ended up sharing anyway, Sarah splitting half her Enchiladas in exchange for half of Chuck's Fajitas. When dinner was over, they got around to talking. She started him off with family, so Chuck went on to tell her about Ellie and Captain Awesome.

"So I walk in and there he was, in his boxers, hanging upside down in the middle of the hallway, and the first thing he said was 'S'up bro'." Chuck said in a gruff, throaty voice, trying to mimic Devon.

"No..." Sarah's eyes went wide, a slow grin forming on her face.

Chuck laughed, nodding slowly as he did, "It's true, though."

"So, wait, wait..." She held up a hand as she chuckled, "You _actually_ call him Captain Awesome?"

"Yeah, wait 'til you meet him."Bartowski nodded with a goofy smile, "everything he does is awesome - climbing mountains, jumping out of planes..." He shrugged lightly, "Flossing."

Sarah let slip a soft giggle. It made his heart jump. She laughed with her eyes, he noticed. The way her eyes seemed to squint shut as her musical voice reached his ears, it warmed him. He really liked this girl.

"That's funny." She smiled widely as her eyes came up to meet his.

Chuck felt his cheeks burn as his lips seemed to move on their own, "Well, I'm a funny guy."

_Good! That's good!_

"Clearly..." Sarah's features softened as she laughed, "which is good, 'cause I am _not_ funny."

"Is that your big secret, by the way?"

She glanced up at Chuck with confusion as he continued with a nervous chuckle, "'Cause I'm sitting here, trying to figure out what's wrong with you-"

_There HAS to be something wrong with her! She's perfect! Why would a girl like her be interested in ME?_

"Oh, plenty. Believe me." She glanced nervously to the side.

"I was thinking, maybe she's a cannibal or she's really not that funny. And I was pulling for cannibal 'cause I never met one before." He flashed her a grin that stretched his face. Chuck could feel his entire face aching, seeing that he'd been smiling all night while he was with Sarah.

Sarah laughed as she said with mock-seriousness, "Uh, not a cannibal." Her voice then became lower, nervous even, "But I just did come out of a long relationship so I may come with baggage."

"Well, I could be your very own baggage handler..." He said with a smile, but it quickly faded away when he realized what had just slipped out of his mouth. Even Sarah seemed a little shocked that he had said that, a small blush forming against her porcelain skin.

_A little inappropriate, don't you think Bartowski?_

He cleared his throat quickly as he laughed nervously, "So, the ex, the guy, the ex is the reason you moved here from..."

"Uh," She seemed to snap out of a daze, "D.C. After I realized that all of my friends were his friends and that everything about Washington reminds me of Bry-_Bruce_-I needed a change. A big one."

Chuck narrowed his eyes, humour glinting, "Bruce? Yeah. You give me crap for being 'Chuck' and you went out with a Bruce? That's nice. That's real good."

At that, Sarah burst into laughter. The one that made her bright blue eyes squint shut and her grin so wide they showed off every one of her pearly whites. He noticed that Sarah had a small under bite and uneven front teeth, but she was still so beautiful. Flawed beauty was the best kind.

When she had finally stopped giggling, Sarah asked curiously, "So, what about you? What skeletons do you have in your closet?" When she noticed that Chuck had frozen in place and his smile disappeared, she added softly, "Any secrets? Any women?"

Chuck wondered briefly if it was a good idea. He then recalled a frantic Ellie literally screaming at him to not mention Jill, or if it was brought up, not to go too in-depth. He looked over to Sarah and he finally managed to get his lips moving, "Uh, yeah, yeah..."

He cleared his throat and continued, albeit a little hesitantly, "Actually, back in college, there was someone..." He noticed Sarah watching him expectantly and let out a nervous chuckle, imagining a screaming Ellie next to him, "but that's all over with now...and her restraining orders are very specific."

She was laughing again and Chuck sighed in relief. Somehow, it felt like a giant weight had been lifted off of him. He felt that by avoiding the topic of Jill, he was finally moving on. It took him long enough though. 5 years. He had been hung over that girl for 5 years. No explanations, just that she had started dating his best friend almost immediately after he had been expelled. He had honestly thought that she loved him, because he sure as hell loved her.

Chuck glanced over to the blond sitting across from him. Beautiful, smart... Sure he had a thing for brunettes, but Sarah was changing things. Sarah... She was different. He could feel it.

"I like you, Chuck." She said suddenly, and Chuck could feel his cheeks burning up again. They had met only a day ago, and he was already wrapped around her pinky. God he was easy.

* * *

**Burbank, Cavalier Boulevard**

The date went surprisingly well.

Chuck had been the perfect gentleman, although she could tell that he was holding out on her. He was nervous, definitely, but the real surprise was that she was a little nervous herself. She had almost slipped up just now, almost saying 'Bryce' when they were talking about exes.

She was supposed to go on the date as a blank slate to be filled in later. She was supposed to be Chuck Bartowski's perfect woman. But instead, Sarah found herself being coaxed out by him. The way his intelligent brown eyes watched her shyly as he spoke to her in a voice so rich... It was almost too much. Chuck Bartowski was making her heart pound.

Frankly, she really doubted that Chuck could possibly be in league with Bryce. He was just too nice and too innocent. Graham was not going to be happy about it though.

"Where are we going?" Sarah asked him as they strolled down the Cavalier Boulevard, just two blocks from the Mexican Restaurant they were just in.

Chuck smiled wryly at her, "Do you like music?"

"I guess..." She threaded carefully, but couldn't help the small smile that was beginning to form on her lips. As an Agent, she rarely had the time to listen to the radio. And even if there was music floating around, she would be much too busy to notice it.

Chuck looked at her strangely and chuckled, "You _guess_? What's your favorite band?"

Sarah let out a genuine laugh. She'd never admit it, but she really was having fun. In fact, she haven't had a date quite like this ever since joining the CIA. Because after that, every 'date' that she went on were usually with (very bad, very dangerous) men that only wanted to get into her pants. Chuck seemed distressed at the idea of even _touching _her. He blushed so fiercely when their hands accidentally brushed against each other and Sarah found that reaction to be refreshing, actually.

Because this meant that Chuck was honest. Painfully, _painfully _honest.

She was suddenly brought back into reality, and remembered vaguely that Chuck had asked her if she had a favourite band. She glanced up at him (Bartowski was a pretty tall guy) and smiled shyly.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh." He laughed when he realized what that look meant.

Sarah groaned playfully, "God, I am not funny, I don't listen to music. This must be your worst date ever, right?" She glanced over to her side to look at Chuck but noticed that the man had fallen behind her.

He was standing by the stone railings, eyes slightly glazed over as he watched a black limousine and its escorts drive under the bridge right below them. Sarah cocked a brow, "I was waiting for you to say no..."

_What was he doing...?_

Chuck seemed to snap out of it as he shook his head slightly. He seemed a little distressed and confused, "Sorry, sorry, I kinda zoned out there for a second." He then blinked in realization, "No, no, no, no. God, no. I, uh, I've had, I've had much, much worse, uh, much worse dates." He gave her a nervous laugh as he placed a hand behind her back, urging her to move along, "Experiences over all with women. In eleventh grade-"

"Eleventh grade?" Sarah chortled, "you have to go back that far?"

"I don't date all that much." Chuck shrugged with a wide grin.

Sarah smiled curiously at him as he led her down the boulevard, pondering about what he had said.

* * *

**Marlowe's Den - Underground Music Club**

It didn't take him that long to find out where the mark and Agent Walker was headed to.

In fact, he was more concerned on _why _Walker haven't noticed the band of black suits tailing the couple. Major John Casey led his men down the stairs, brushing away drunkards and beardy hipsters and scaring them away with a growl.

The 'Den' was barely lit, with spotlights glaring from the stage and tiny, recycled holiday lights hung around the basement being the only source of light. The club had too many people for his liking, with it being Friday and all. Loud music blasted from the live band playing on a small platform at the far end of the room and Casey scanned the area, looking for a certain blond and her curly haired friend.

"Sir," one of the suits tilted his head towards a small clearing where Walker sat with her boy toy at the couches.

"Chuck Bartowski's your mark. NSA director wants him with a pulse. 'Til we find out who he's working with and what he knows, he lives." Casey ordered gruffly, eyes trained on the couple as he pulled out his 9 millimetre, "The CIA skirt," He cocked his gun, "you can kill."

The men nodded silently as they paired up with each other moving towards the mark cautiously. John stood by the wall, making sure that he was obscured. He kept his gun cocked, in case things got ugly. It was probably unnecessary, but it was procedure. His men were some of the best agents he had trained. Very smart and very savvy.

_Though it doesn't seem that they're savvy enough..._

Walker had seen them. He watched as she grabbed the mark's hand and dragged him into the dancing crowd. She was trying to make things difficult. No matter, his men were NSA's finest. They'll grab both of them and Casey should be out of L.A by supper.

"Oh no." He mumbled to himself when his first pair of agents were shot down. Not literally with a gun, but he saw the flash of steel and the two suits were immediate downed, stabbed in the knee.

_Throwing Knives... One of Walker's specialties. Smart girl._

She was groping the mark. Keeping the boy distracted as she took the chance to survey the area for the rest of the agents. Bartowski was nervous, seeing that he kept swallowing and was getting a little hot under his collar as Walker practically threw herself on him.

Another pair of agents were closing in now and Casey watched as Walker slid down to the floor as she removed the sticks in her hair. Two expert twists of her wrist later, he saw that another pair of agents were pinned to the wall and a third agent, who had gotten the closest to the pair, was immobilized by a throwing knife, stabbed in the stomach. When she was happy with her handiwork, Walker slide from under Bartowski's legs (the boy was blushing like nobody's business by now) and he pulled her up, letting the blond press her body on his.

Immediately after that though, Walker made eye contact with Casey and he smirked. _Nowhere to run now, missy._

Oh but she did. She grabbed Bartowski's hand and began to yank at him, pulling him out of the club. Casey sighed as he pressed on his ear piece, "Play time's over. Agents down. Target's on the move."

* * *

**Outside Marlowe's**

"Where's the fire?" Chuck asked curiously when they were outside. He thought that they had such a good time in there, in fact, Sarah seemed to really let loose. That dance made him so incredibly uncomfortable, but it was, at the same time, so damn _hot_.

Sarah didn't say a word as she led him back to the Nerd Herd Mobile. (Embarrassing, but it was the company car. What was he to do? He couldn't afford a car at 12 dollars an hour.) She then looked him in the eye, desperation in her bright blue orbs, "Chuck, give me your keys."

"I, uh, I don't mean to be old-fashioned, but the company only wants employees - nerds - driving the Nerd Herd mobile. I mean, that's kind of, you know-"

The blond didn't wait for him to finish as she yanked open the driver's door and slipped into the car, yelling at him to get inside.

All Chuck could say was, "How'd you get into my car?"

Before Sarah could say anything else, a loud screeching noise came from the other end of the street. A large, black SUV was swerved in and Sarah seemed even more distressed than before, yelling, "Get in the car right now!"

Chuck was never good when people yelled at him. He just couldn't do it. He could only work when calmed his mind and gave his slightly above average (and currently wonky) brain some space to breathe and think. But when Sarah was screaming at him to get his scrawny ass into the Nerd Herd Mobile, he wasted no time.

"What is going on?" He asked, a little angrily. He never raised his voice though. Chuck would never raise his voice against a woman. She's a slightly deranged woman, but she's still a woman.

Sarah refused to acknowledge the question. She was having some sort of staring contest with the driver of the SUV and quite suddenly, she pulled the PRNDL to Reverse and stomped on the gas. Chuck couldn't help the incredibly unmanly yelp as the car sped backwards and the SUV revved and accelerated towards them.

"Sarah, you're not even looking!" He screamed, ready to pull out his hair at the madness of it all. She was staring straight at the SUV in front of them, weaving through the oncoming traffic like they weren't as big a deal.

"Wa - wait, wait - who are these guys? What do they want? !" Chuck's eyes widened as the SUV rammed into their car, right in the bumper. Big Mike was _not _going to be a happy man when he sees that dent. If he was even going to make it through tonight though. Now Sarah's reckless driving was the least of his concerns. Chuck stared right at the grinning psychopath sitting in the driver's seat of the SUV. "OH MY GOD, I'M GONNA DIE!"

Sarah seemed unfazed though, She was glaring hard at the SUV driver, but she was calm and collected, "Tell me when to turn!"

"Uh, uh," He turned back and watched as they neared a junction, "left at five seconds!" The SUV bumped them again and Chuck couldn't help the yelp that escaped his lips.

"Your left or my left?"

"W-What?"

"Too late!"

She twisted the wheel and the car jerked to the left just as an incoming car swerved to the right. The SUV was still coming on to them but they stopped suddenly. For a second, Chuck thought that they were safe. But his happy thoughts were premature as he felt the car tilt backwards and Sarah was now reversing the Nerd Herder down some stairs, bumping and flying.

When the car finally came to a stop, they were both panting, and he didn't even know why. Sarah turned to him suddenly, urgency written all over her face, "Listen to me, Chuck. Those men will hurt you. They're from the NSA, and they're after you."

His eyes went wide as the words sunk in, "Me? W-Why me?" He stuttered, " I'm nobody. I'm a supervisor of the Nerd Herd at a Buy More. Maybe one day I'll be assistant store manager and I don't even know if I want that job! You - you know what? That's not your problem." He blabbered on, watching as the brows on her Sarah crushed together in confusion or frustration, he didn't know.

What he did know was that he could see the head lights from the SUV from before was shining right at them, "...But that is." He trailed off and pointed over her shoulders. When Sarah turned around, it was already too late. The car had slammed into them and Chuck could feel the airbags release and slam painfully into his chest. He'd be feeling _that _tomorrow.

_Assuming that there would be a tomorrow... This is getting out of hand!_

Chuck took a large gasp of air and heard Sarah do the same. The SUV had driven to the other end of the street and as Chuck stepped out of the car, he noticed that Sarah is doing the same. He was relieved that she seemed alright. Bruises were definitely going to form, but she was alive and kicking. She looked angry actually. They both turn at the sound of the SUV revving again and Sarah screamed at him, "CHUCK! RUN!"

He didn't need her to yell at him again. They both ran, towards where, they didn't know, but as long as they were away from the NSA lunatics, anywhere was fine. Chuck was never really into athletics. Sure he had tried to go jogging with Awesome once or twice when Woodcomb had first started dating Ellie, but after the incident at the park, Chuck never really liked running.

This was why when he saw the car bumper, his brain didn't seem to register it until he had fallen over it and his shin hurt like someone had kicked him hard. He landed elbow first on the asphalt and Chuck knew that he was never going to hear the end of it when he got home. He glanced up to see that Sarah was still running, and the SUV was right behind her.

"S-SARAH!" He called out to warn her, but it was too late. She couldn't possibly outrun a car. It was already getting too close and she had nowhere else to run. He couldn't look. He didn't want to see her go like that, but he couldn't tear his eyes away.

To his surprise though, just as the SUV seemed to make contact with the blond, Sarah threw something at the guardhouse to her left and crouched. The emergency blockade bars shot up and the SUV immediately met with the blockade. The bumper of the large vehicle was dented so bad, Chuck almost felt sorry for the guy.

* * *

Sarah recovered quickly, pushing herself off of the floor and running towards Chuck. She was bruised everywhere, but nothing she couldn't handle. She examined Chuck as he jumped up from the asphalt, eyes wide at the debris behind her.

His elbows were bleeding slightly, but it wasn't too bad. Other than that, nothing seemed to be wrong with him. Happy that was over, Sarah quickly fished out her cell phone and dialled the secure number, "Request emergency evac. Track location: we're on foot."

"W-What's going on-" Chuck seemed to recover some of his wits as Sarah hooked her arm around his and dragged him along. They were lucky that the building right next to their wreckage had a helipad, allowing Sarah to lug Bartowski up, shooting glares at anyone who seemed to take curiosity at the couple.

She dragged him up in silence, panting slightly. He was tired too, she could tell. His breaths were heavy and his footsteps were getting slower. When they had finally reached the roof, Sarah asked, "How well do you know Bryce Larkin?"

She could see the confusion in his bright brown eyes as his brows furrowed, "Wh - how - how do you know Bryce?"

"We worked together at the CIA." She said. Actually, spat was more likely what she did. She loved him, and hated him at the same time.

Bartowski started to stutter, shock settling on his boyish face, "The what? The CIA? Bryce was a spy? Bryce Larkin from Connecticut was a spy?"

"A rogue spy!" Sarah explained fiercely, "Did he try to contact you?"

Chuck shook his head lightly, "I haven't heard from Bryce in the-" His head suddenly snapped up, realization showed in his eyes, "wait, wait. He - he sent - he sent me an email."

"Did you open it?" Her eyes narrowed. This was it. If Chuck had opened the e-mail. If he had seen the files...

"Yeah. It was - it was, uh, a line from Zork-" He said in rapid-fire, struggling to wrap his mind around all this.

She stared blankly at Chuck. "_What?_"

He cleared his throat as he explained, a small blush coming on to his cheeks, "Zork. It's, uh, it's a video game that we used to play. There was a riddle and I solved it and, uh, pictures. Lots and lots of pictures."

_Oh shit._

"You saw them?" She furrowed her brows. This was going to get complicated. "Your computer - did you back it up? Is there an external drive?"

"It crashed a week ago," he grumbled. Then Chuck's eyes snapped up at her, "-wait, wait. Wasn't I supposed to look at those pictures?"

Sarah was about to say something else when she noticed a certain NSA agent stalking up the stairs from behind. She leaned into Chuck, voice low, "I may have to aim my gun at you, so just _don't freak out_."

"W-Why...?"

Sarah took a few steps back and watched as John Casey strolled in. Chuck noticed the towering NSA agent and stiffened. Casey seemed rather unfazed by the fact that he had just crashed into a blockade just a few minutes ago. In fact, he was rubbing at his eye, looking rather uninterested.

"It's late. I'm tired..." Casey drawled out as he circled towards Walker and stood just a few feet from her, "Let's cut the crap and you give him to me now. He belongs to the NSA."

_Don't freak out, Chuck._

She swiped out her gun and pointed it at a startled Bartowski who was giving her all sorts of puppy dog eyes right now, begging her to tell him what was going on. "The CIA gets him first!" She yelled over the howling winds. "You come any closer and I shoot."

By now, John Casey had already whipped out his own gun and pointed it squarely at Walker, eyes narrowing dangerously.

"Sarah, I'm freaking out." Chuck muttered to her through gritted teeth.

"You shoot him, I shoot you, and leave both your bodies here for a late night snack." Casey mumbled out sarcastically, "I'm thinking maybe pancakes."

Chuck glanced between the two agents and swallowed hard. He suddenly turned heels and Sarah knew that he was trying to run. What was he thinking? Outrunning a bullet?

"Chuck! No!" She screamed. She expected a gunshot by now, either from her own or from Casey's, but to her surprise, Chuck actually listened and he stood rooted to the ground, staring off into the distance.

Sarah shot glances towards Casey and saw that the NSA agent was glancing curiously between Chuck and her. When she saw that he had taken a step towards Bartowski, she did the same. Now both agents were inching towards the curly haired Nerd Herder, guns still pointing at their targets.

Suddenly, Chuck spun around, bright brown eyes filled with fear and desperation, "They're gonna kill him." He muttered.

Sarah stole a look at Casey, who seemed to be weighing his options right now. They knew now that Chuck seemed to know something, and if Casey deemed it necessary, that Chuck was a hazard to the nation, he would not hesitate to shoot.

"Kill who?" John asked with narrowed eyes.

"Stanfield the general. The general Stanfield," Chuck blabbered nervously, his voice cracking, "Look, something is wrong with me, okay? I don't know what it is, but something is very, very wrong with me. I'm remembering things I shouldn't know."

"Okay, Chuck, talk to me." She shouted over to him as he turned his attention to her, "Like what?"

"I don't know, I don't know. For example, there was, uh, there was a Serbian demolitions expert at the Large Mart today. That's kind of odd, wouldn't you say?" Bartowski let out a loud, nervous laugh, "Well, last week the NSA - you guys intercepted some blueprints, blueprints of a hotel."

Sarah shot a look at Casey, who was simply staring straight at Chuck, slightly perplexed. Bartowski pointed to the building behind them. It was the Continental Hotel.

"That hotel," Chuck stammered, "and the CIA," he stared at Walker, "you guys found a vial of schematics of a bomb in Prague."

At this, Casey cocked a brow at Walker and Sarah furrowed hers at the NSA agent. Chuck swallowed hard as he mumbled, "The bomb is in that hotel."

* * *

"He was working with Bryce."

The NSA guy had switched his target from Sarah to Chuck, and frankly, Chuck might've shat his pants right there if he wasn't frozen solid at that moment. God he hated Bryce. That man single-handedly ruined his life with the mystery CIA/NSA e-mail thing and the girl stealing and Stanford expelling.

"No. He opened Bryce's email." Sarah informed him harshly, finger hovering over the trigger. She then turned to Chuck and swallowed, "Chuck, those pictures that you saw were encoded with secrets. _Government_ secrets. If you saw them, then you know them."

He could feel his entire body weigh down with every word that left her lips. "There were thousands of them..." His voice was airy and distant, as if he was talking to himself rather than the two Government agents pointing loaded guns at each other.

"Wait a minute."

The NSA guy grumbled, clearly getting highly irritated at the situation, "You're telling me ALL of our secrets are in his head?" Chuck noticed that the laser pointer from the NSA guy's gun was now pointing right in the middle of his forehead. Bartowski forced down the urge to throw up right there.

"Chuck _IS_ the computer." Sarah growled out, trying to get the point across to the NSA agent.

"What did you say? What does that mean?" He could feel his eyes widening at that as his lips moved on their own, babbling again.

Sarah frowned deeply, "You have to listen to me. You have to say-"

"What is happening to me? !" Chuck stared at her right in the eye. This was getting way out of hand. Guns, Government agents, terrorists and assassinations? This was _not _what he had expected out of this date.

"You said there was a bomb," Sarah broke it down for him, voice grave and expression stony, "is there time to stop it?

"What? What? What? Wh - are you crazy? !" He yelled at her. The first time he had ever yelled at a woman. Chuck wasn't proud of it.

"We're the good guys. We keep bombs from exploding." The large, imposing NSA agent snapped back at him sarcastically.

"Look, I can't - I can't help you, okay? I really wish that I could but I can't." Chuck snapped his fingers, "Call Bryce! He's the guy that can save the day-"

_Because he's Bryce freakin' Larkin. He got us into this mess, he's sure as hell gonna get us out of it!_

"BRYCE IS DEAD."

"W-What..."

He snapped his head up to Sarah, eyes wide and mouth agape. There was a flash of pain in her eyes before she quickly masked it over with professionalism. "He died sending those secrets to you."

"B-Bryce is dead...?" He muttered to himself. Was it true? He had spent the last 5 years hating that man and the last 5 minutes _intensely _cursing that man. He couldn't be dead, right? He was Bryce Larkin. Ace student, star track runner, all round Casanova, and apparently, secret agent. It just wasn't right. Bryce? _Dead?_

Suddenly, a loud shot rang through the night and Chuck jumped. He felt the urge to pat his body for bullet holes, but he felt no pain so he figured that he wasn't shot. Sarah was still standing, so she isn't shot either. In fact, she was glaring hard at the man in the black suit who had fired the gun into the sky.

The NSA agent grunted irritably as he glowered at Chuck, "Yeah, and he's gonna have company unless you start talking. So, _pretty_ please. Can we defuse the bomb _now_?"

Chuck swallowed hard and turned to Sarah pleadingly. She nodded slightly and Chuck sighed, "According to the schedule, the general is already on the stage..."

* * *

**The Continental Hotel**

They ran.

From the roof, they quickly intercepted the lift and the air between the three were tense. Sarah could hear Chuck's quick and shallow breathing as he stared straight at the numbers blinking above the lift doors. When the door finally opened, she grabbed his arm and literally dragged him out as Casey bolted out the door without even a glance back.

When they had crossed the street and finally arrived at the hotel lobby, Sarah realized that Chuck was still following them and they were quite literally running straight into their graves. If all of the Government's secrets were in his head right now, she sure as hell won't be the agent who got him killed.

"Wait! Casey, wait!" She screamed as she slapped a hand on Chuck's chest, halting him immediately. Casey turned back, glaring hard at Walker, "We can't take him. He's too valuable."

"Okay," Casey grumbled as he pushed Chuck down to the floor. The curly haired Nerd Herder landed on his butt with a yelp as Casey jabbed a finger into his chest, "but you tell us where to go!"

"The easiest way?" Chuck asked shakily, looking up at Casey with puppy dog eyes.

Sarah felt her body tense up, "The fastest, Chuck."

He stared straight into her eyes and she noticed the determination behind those bright brown orbs. "The fastest - got it."

Quite suddenly, Bartowski jolted up from the floor and he was running into the hotel. "CHUCK!" She yelled, but he didn't even turn his head. Instead, she found herself chasing and following Chuck, panting as they crossed the large fountain in the middle of the hotel lounge. She heard grunts following behind her, knowing that they belonged to John Casey. She had thought that Casey would've shot Chuck down by now.

"God Dammit Bartowski!" The imposing NSA agent growled between breaths.

They couldn't catch up to him. Chuck was surprisingly fast for someone who fixed computers for a living. He lacked stamina though. As they ran up the hallway, Chuck seemed to slow down, approaching one of the double doors ahead of them.

"Through here! Through here!" He yelled, hands flailing as he gestured to the doors.

The three burst through the doors and caught the attention of a couple of people sitting by the tables closest to them. Everybody else were engrossed in the General's speech though. Sarah scanned the area for possible spots to hide incendiary devices. There were so many people, it was hard to pin point where would be the best place to plant a bomb. There were just too many possibilities.

"Where's the bomb, wise guy?" Casey growled lowly at Chuck who seemed to be shaking under John's heavy scrutiny.

"I don't, uh, I don't-" His bright brown eyes darted all over the place until they seemed to settle on an unattended silver tray sitting in the middle of the room. "That's it." His voice high and squeaky.

"Aaahh!" Bartwoski cried out as Casey yanked him by the shoulders, towards the tray. Sarah follow right behind, noticing that the security guys had picked up on their movement. "That's it. Right there." Chuck muttered as Casey pulled him away from the tray and opened it.

"Oh God..." Sarah's voice came out in a whisper. The bomb was already armed and they were left with no more than 2 minutes to either evacuate, or try to diffuse the bomb. Casey was right next to her, growling something unintelligible.

"No time to evacuate. Any ideas?" He finally said, turning to Walker in hurried tones.

"Disconnect the laptop?" She offered nervously. Casey shook his head as he turned back to the ticking time bomb.

"There's no trigger." He examined the set-up, "No cables?"

"Definitely a trap." Sarah furrowed her brows.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Sarah turned to see that they were now surrounded by suits. Casey noticed as well and grunted irritably. He would handle those clowns while Sarah concentrated on the bomb. When there seemed to be nothing for her to go on, Sarah pulled at the hem of Chuck's shirt and asked hurriedly, "Chuck, is there anything else you remember about the bomb?"

"I-Uh-"

Suddenly, a song started to play and Chuck looked down and fished out his cell phone with an irritated expression. Sarah rolled her eyes and turned to Casey, who seemed like he was ready to strangle Bartowski.

Sarah turned back to the bomb. Less than a minute now. She glanced around to see the suits escorting the guests out of the room.

"I'm a little busy right now, Morgan," she heard Chuck reply his friend with a quiver in his voice. Of course it was the little bearded man, she thought tiredly. "_Why are you calling?_" Chuck asked harshly.

Sarah looked up at Chuck with furrowed brows, about to ask him to get the hell out of here. With those secrets in his head, he was more valuable to them alive. It was then that she noticed the little light in Chuck's eyes as he hung up on his friend and shoved the phone into his pocket.

"I have an idea."

Chuck suddenly crouched down and squeezed between the two agents. Before Chuck could type anything though, Casey grabbed his hands, looking insanely pissed (with a vein popping out of his forehead and all). "That's not an Xbox. You're not an Xman."

Sarah saw Chuck cock a brow but he quickly focused on the task at hand, "I understand that. This is a Prism Express laptop. We sell these at our store. This has a DOS overwrite."

Casey narrowed his eyes at Chuck, and Sarah glanced towards the computer. They had less than 30 seconds left. There was no time for them to fight about this.

"I think I can do this. I can do this. Please." Chuck looked up at Sarah with pleading eyes and she melted a little inside. It was worth a shot. If anybody knew about computers, it was Chuck Bartowski. Bryce had told her so.

"He's our best shot." She muttered.

Casey looked torn between letting Chuck mess with a bomb and simply fumbling in the dark with 20 seconds to go. Finally, he relented, "GO!"

Chuck flashed Casey a ghost of a smile before he flexed his fingers and typed quickly. His fingers glided across the keys like lightning and Sarah honestly didn't know what was going on. "Mr. Bomb, meet Mr. Internet." She heard him mutter as his eyes focused on the black and white screen.

It was surprising how Chuck, a civilian, would master the same amount of concentration and professionalism as a hardened agent.

She watched as Chuck somehow managed to bright up a web browser and he began typing in the oddly familiar name 'Irene Demova'.

"He's searching for porn." Casey narrowed his eyes dangerously as Chuck who pointed a finger up at Casey to shut him up. Sarah simply watched with growing curiosity.

Porn popped up like nobody's business when Chuck clicked on the first web link that appeared. He then closed his eyes as the porn started to load. Sarah wanted to gorge her own eyes out as tons of nude photos of the porn star started bombarding the screen. The porn pop-ups came up so quickly and in such great numbers, Sarah started to notice how they were starting to become distorted and warped.

Finally, right at the 00:00:01 mark, the computer frizzled and popped and the timer disappeared, along with the porn. The three waited in silence for about two seconds, before allowing themselves a breath. They were alive. The countdown was halted.

_They were alive!_

"You did it." She said in a voice hardly any louder than a whisper, eyes watching the curly haired man tenderly.

"I did it." He smiled shakily. Then when the realization started to sink in, Chuck burst out into nervous laughter, "I did it. I, I defused a real bomb! I defused a real bomb! I defused a real bomb!" A second later though, he choked, "...what if I was wrong?"

Sarah watched amusedly as his bright brown eyes widened in fear. She then heard Casey grunt as he pushed himself up from the floor, patting Chuck on the back as he did, "Don't puke on the C-4."

Chuck turned positively green.

* * *

**Outside The Continental Hotel**

"He's coming with me." They both said at the same time.

John Casey had never been a man for compromise. He either won or lost. There was no two ways about it. So he said that Bartowski was coming with him, he meant it.

"What if this was just a fluke?" He narrowed his eyes at Walker, a woman who was getting on his nerves, very quickly.

"And what if it wasn't? What if he can stop something-"

"Fine. Drop him in a psych tank, let him stare at four rubber walls for the next decade," He interrupted the CIA agent very calmly, "He'll tell us what we wanna know." Casey added, sarcasm dripping.

"Casey, we don't know how this works, what triggers his memories. He'll crack wide open." She insisted. She really seemed to believe her little sales pitch though. Or at least, she really wanted to believe it.

"Not my job. I break things. I don't fix them." He stated bluntly.

Sarah exhaled in frustration, "What about his job, his friends? What do we do about his sister?"

"What about my sister?"

They both turned to the source of the voice. Chuck had his hands shoved in his pockets. His wild, brown curls were in crazy animal shapes and he looked exhausted.

Walker softened her tone, "We were just-"

Chuck held a hand up to silence her, "No, no, no, you listen. You have to leave my family and my friends out of this." His soft features were suddenly hardened as he stared straight into Walker's sky blue eyes. Casey was unimpressed though.

"We'll see." He grumbled, straightening his back as he towered over Bartowski.

"Look, Bryce sent that email to me. I'm the one remembering all your secrets. Which means you have to listen to me." He said as he pointed to both Casey and Walker, "Both of you." He then sighed "And right now, I'm gonna go home."

Chuck turned heels immediately and began t walk out on them. Sarah was staring at his back with furrowed brows and a pained expression. Casey couldn't care less as he grabbed the lanky boy's shoulder, "No, you're not."

Chuck shrugged it off with surprising strength as he glowered at John, "You." He glanced at both Walker and him again, "You need me."

Casey let the boy walk away. He couldn't run, he couldn't hide. So John simply let the boy have some rest before the higher ups decide on what to do with him. So it was settled that Chuck wasn't working with Bryce. And it was settled now that Bartowski was a moron. But Casey would like to see how this went down.

It would be interesting to see the expression on Beckman and Graham's faces when he reported in for the night.

* * *

**South Beach**

He sat there for the longest time, wondering.

This thing in his head. It contained every little secret from the CIA and NSA. He literally had all of America's dirty little secrets in that unimpressive, slightly above average brain of his. He had always said that his slightly above average brain was the only redeeming quality about him, and he was proven right once again. Now his head as the most valuable asset to the CIA and NSA.

_The way they were talking about Ellie..._

Because of one stupid mistake. Chuck could've gotten his family and friends killed for all he knew. Wasn't that what these secret agent people did? Kill someone if they knew too much? He thought back to that NSA agent. He had heard Sarah call him Casey. He was a big guy. Wide shoulders, thick arms. Always seemed to be grunting. Casey seemed to be the kind who'd kill on order, because he sure as hell looked like he wanted to strangle Chuck on so many occasions in that 20 minutes of knowing him.

Sarah though.

Blond haired, blue eyed Sarah Walker. He wondered briefly if whatever she said during their date had any once of truth in it. Because he had seen the way she smiled at him. That beautiful smile. Chuck would do anything to get her to smile like that for him. But maybe it was all just a ruse. He didn't know. The secrets and the lying, it just wasn't him. Chuck hated this.

The sun had risen and he watched as the bright orange orb slowly appeared from the horizon. Pretty, he thought. He was supposed to bring Sarah up here as the highlight of the date. This wasn't one of Ellie's suggestions, but something he had thought up on his own.

He had found this place while he was driving back home the day he was kicked out of Stanford. The rental car smelled like mouldy leather and he really wasn't getting the mileage he was paying for the car. He remembered feeling so miserable that day, not knowing what to say to Ellie when he got home. He didn't want to see that sag of his sister's features when he told her that he got expelled. He just couldn't take it.

So when he saw the beach that day, it was already evening and the sun was just setting. He remembered just sitting there, watching as the sun set and disappeared beyond the horizon. Chuck sat there the whole night, until he saw the sun rise again. It was then that he figured that it was about time he went back home to face the music.

He felt someone walking up behind him and he couldn't think of anyone else who would be out here in the most secluded part of the beach. He could smell her perfume as she moved right next to him and sat down.

"How long have you been here?" He asked softly. He knew she had been around. Surely he didn't think that the Government would leave their precious secret keeper unattended for even a second.

Sarah put her boots down gently next to her, burying her bare feet into the soft sand, "All night."

"There's nowhere I can run, is there?"

She gave a sad little laugh, "Not from us"

Chuck watched the waters as they formed waves that crashed into the beach. There were so many thoughts running through his head right now. He worried for Ellie, for Devon... He was worried for Morgan... How far would the Government go to keep their secrets... well... secrets?

He felt Sarah shift closer to him. Their shoulders were almost touching now. He knew that he should be scared. She was a trained killer after all, but right now, he liked to believe that Sarah was the same girl who was laughing at his stupid jokes just hours before. That she was Sarah, the girl who didn't listen to music and once dated a guy named Bruce.

"Talk to me, Chuck."

He exhaled deeply, "Yesterday I was making 12 bucks an hour fixing computers. Now I have one in my brain, and I can't figure out why Bryce did this, why he chose me." He glanced down at his hands and stared at them, as if he had never seen them before, "What are you gonna do with me? What happens now?"

"For now, you go back to your old life." Sarah informed him gently. He could feel her bright blue eyes, staring right at him. "We'll protect you, and you'll work with us."

"And my sister? My friends? Are they in danger?" He croaked as he ran his hands through his curly brown hair, still not looking at Walker.

"Tell them nothing to keep them safe."

Chuck sighed heavily at that. Of course he couldn't tell them anything. He'd watched enough spy flicks to know how this worked.

"I need you to do one more thing for me." Sarah asked softly as she hugged her knees to her chest.

"Yeah?"

"Trust me, Chuck."

Chuck glanced over to Sarah, her sky blue eyes meeting his chocolate brown ones. A small smile played on her lips, and he could see that she was sincere. And that smile... The smile that he'd do anything to see again. He flashed her a small smile of his own and turned back to the waves. Sarah bumped shoulders with him playfully, and he closed his eyes. Simply enjoying the moment.

* * *

**Sarah's Apartment**

After a hot shower and a change of clothes, Sarah climbed onto her bed, ready to succumb to her exhaustion.

She had received her orders. She would be staying here in Burbank for a while. For now, she would be on surveillance duty and that was as easy as it was going to get. She was glad that Graham's prediction was false.

_Nice guys don't get sent Government secrets..._

Well, Chuck was a nice guy. And he certainly wasn't working with Bryce. She didn't know why Bryce would send Chuck the Intersect files, but whatever the reason, it didn't matter now. What mattered now was Chuck. As long as he was safe. As long as he wasn't hurt. She would be happy.

Tomorrow, she would start on her new assignment. Protect Chuck. This meant that she would be starting on a fresh slate. Sarah found her cell phone sitting on her side table and she picked it up. Scrolling through her folders, she finally found the one she was looking for.

_'Bryce, Cabo 2005'_

She frowned slightly, even as she opened the folder and scrolled through the photos. They were so great together. All these memories. That smile. His sharp grey eyes. The photos just stabbed her through the heart. Sarah clicked on the red button on her cell phone. 'Delete?' the screen asked.

_Yes._

She hit the button and the folder, along with the only proof of their time together, disappeared. For the first time in many years, Sarah Walker cried to sleep.

* * *

**Buy More**

"Well, wish me luck."

Anna, Lester and Jeff all gave them their own versions of 'Good Luck' as they watched Chuck walk towards Big Mike's office. Harry Tang was giving him a hard time again. He pointed two fingers at Chuck, and then at his eyes. Bartowski figured that it was meant to be the 'I'm watching you' glare.

Chuck, being the bigger man (quite literally. Harry was half his size) and ignored the green shirt supervisor. Harry was unsatisfied though. He shoulder bumped Chuck, hard. Maybe even hard enough to bruise, but Chuck didn't care. He's got enough to worry about than Tang and his stupid rivalry.

All this time, though, Chuck noticed a Texan funeral music blasting loudly from somewhere. it was when he was standing right in front of Morgan that he realized that it came from the stereo, and Morgan was the one playing it. Chuck stared blankly at his best friend and Morgan quickly turned down the dial.

"Sorry." He muttered as he watched Chuck head into Big Mike's office, "Go get him!"

When Chuck had stepped into the office, Big Mike didn't even bother looking up from his computer. Instead, he stabbed a finger down on the paper tray, already knowing Bartowski's agenda. Chuck swallowed hard and placed the paper gently into the pile.

"Didn't think you'd apply." the large, dark skinned man said.

"Well, uh, I think I'm ready for this, Big Mike, and what it means - responsibility, decisive leadership-"

"Save it for the interview, Bartowski. Now, go train the new guy" Big Mike said gruffly, eye still glued to the computer.

"Okie doki" Chuck blurted out as he slipped out of his boss's office. When he came out, Chuck was feeling pretty good about himself. He was going to take the first step into moving on. He scanned the area for that new guy Big Mike told him about and his felt his jaw go slack when he noticed the familiar, towering NSA agent standing right by the DVD shelves.

He was wearing the Buy More green shirt, so he was definitely the 'new guy'. The name tag he wore said 'John', so at least now Chuck knew his first and last name. John Casey, NSA agent, was now working as a Burbank Buy More green shirt. Casey saw Chuck staring at him and he gave the Nerd Herder a sinister smirk, folding his arms across his chest.

As Chuck reluctantly made his way towards Casey, he noticed a certain blond staring at him as she walked in his direction. He couldn't help the smile that pulled on his lips as she looked at him with those bright blue eyes. She gave him a knowing smile as she strolled by him, basket in arm. That was when Chuck noticed the large sapphire ring she wore.

Images began to flash through his brain. Hummingbirds, a security footage of a homeless person fighting off attackers, information about the operation, the security footage again, the homeless person had shot dead three of the attackers, the homeless person turned around, staring straight at the camera, bright blue eyes on a familiar face, she aimed the gun on the camera, the ring on her hand, she shoots the camera.

It was Sarah.

Chuck swallowed hard as he stood rooted to the ground, unable to move. He recalled Sarah's words from before as the words left his own lips like a mantra.

"Don't freak out."

* * *

**Author's Note: **God, my followers must hate me. I have two other novelizations that haven't been updated in months and I'm uploading this 21 thousand word story. That's like two chapters worth of my regular updates. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the novelised version of Chuck vs The Intersect! I had planned to novelise the entire 5 seasons but seeing that this first chapter came up to 45 pages/ 21K words, I really doubt I'll have the patience. I didn't realize how long it had gotten until I'm already half way through, and I didn't want my efforts to go to waste so I decided to upload anyway.

In any case, I'd love to know what you guys think about this! It's been a whole year since Chuck ended so I don't really know if the fandom is still alive. The tumblr fandom is dying, kinda. (Shameless self promotion: bluecheesetoast dot tumblr dot com, leave me a PM if you have a Chuck tumblr for me to follow! :D)

_Warning! Chapter is not beta-ed! If there's any jarring mistakes, let me know!_


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